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Canadian Rail 493 2003

42
ISSN 0008-4875
Postal Permit No. 40066621
CANADIAN RAIL
PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY
BY THE CANADIAN RAILROAD HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE LOSTYEARS OFTHE CHAMPLAIN & ST. LAWRENCE …………………………………………….. . HERB MACDONALD …………………. .
TWO DAYS
ANDTWO SEASONS FROM VIA RAILS LAKE SUPERIOR ……………………………… . DARYL ADAIR …………………………… .
MAKING TRACKS, RAIL TRAVEL PROMOTER OPENS DOORTO NORTH ………………………. . BILL REDEKOP …………………………. .
ELECTRICTRAINSTO RAWDON ………………………………………………
……………………………………. . GLENN F. CARTWRIGHT ………..•….
CNR ASSIGNMENTS OF SELF PROPELLED CARS, MAY 2,1926 ……………………………………. . CAN.
RY. & MARINE WORLD ……… .
DONATIONS FROM
J. NORMAN LOWE ………………………………………………………………………….. . P. MURPHY & J. VALLERAND …….. .
CAPE BRETON UPDATE
AS OF 23 MARCH 2003 ……………………………………………………………. . HERB MACDONALD …………………. .
REVISED SCHEDULE FOR CPR 2816 ……………………………………………………………………………… . CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAy …… .
EXPORAIL REPORT ……………………..
……………………………………………………………………………….. .
THE BUSINESS CAR ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… .
43
60
64
66
68
70
72
73
74
77
FRONT COVER: Returning to North Vancouver from an excursion to Alta Lake on August 301964, former Crown Zellerbach No. 16 stops for a photo run along Howe Sound. The occasion was a special train run by the
West Coast Railway Association on the Pacific
Great Eastern Railway, now
B.C Rail.
Photo by Fred Angus
BELOW On a snowy November 4, 2002, Canadian Nationals special executive train heads westward from Montreal.
Photo by Warren Mayhew
For your membership in the CRHA, which
includes a subscription to Canadian Rail,
write to:
CRHA, 120
Rue St-Pierre, SI. Constant,
Que.
J5A2G9
Membership. Dues for 2003:
In Cariada:
$40.00 (including all taxes)
United States:
$35.00 in U.S. funds.
Other Countries: $68.
00 Canadian funds. Canadian Rail is continually
in need of news, stories
historical data, photos, maps and other material. Please
send all contributions to the editor: Fred
F. Angus, 3021
Trafalgar Avenue, Montreal, P.Q. H3Y 1 H3, e-mail
angus82@aei.ca. No PClyment can be made for
contributions, but the contributer will begiven credit for
material submitted. Materia.1
will be.returried to the.contributer
if requested. Remember Knowledge is of little value uriless
it
is shared with others. EDITOR:
Fred F Angus
CO-EDITOR: Douglas N.W Smith
ASSOCIATE EDITOR (Motive Power):
Hugues W Bonin
LAYOUT: Fred F Angus
PRINTING: Procel Printing
DISTRIBUTION: Joncas Postexperts
Inc.
The CRHA may be reached at its web site: www.exporail.org or by telephone at (450) 638-1522
MARCH -APRIL 2003 43 CANADIAN RAIL -493
The Lost Years Of The Champlain & St. Lawrence
by Herb MacDonald
This is a revised and extended version of a paper originally presented at the 2nd International Early Railways
Conference, Manchester, UK, September, 2001
Despite its significance
in
Canadian railway history,
pu blished work dealing
specifically with the Cham­
plain & St. Lawrence is
surprisingly Iimited
l.
The
origins of the company have
been particularly neglected and
one could suggest the first
chapter of the history of the
C&SL has been on the missing
list since 1836. Bay. At the same time, however,
there was a significant boom in
the trade inti m ber
7
to the
British market where tariff
policies were still providing
preferential access for colonial
exports.
Though Lower Canada
remained primarily franco­
phone and rural, migration
from Britain increased
significantly after 1815
8.
By
1831, the population of
Montreal exceeded 30,000 and
the counties
of Dorchester and
Laprairie, through whid(lhe
C&SL was built, had;aiti
additional 30,000 .. Withffl
those rural counties, the largest
centres were S1. Johns with
almost 2000 people and
Laprairie with about 3500
9.
Almost all accounts of
the beginnings of the C&SL
start in the autumn of 1831
despite the fact that the
railways origins go back at
lea
st three years earlier. The
only English-language recog­
nition that the lines promoters
launched attempts at legislative
approval for the project
in both
1828 and 1830 appeared in
biographical studies. Two of
these were in a 1920s banking
journal and two
in more recent
volumes
of the Dictionary of
Canadian Biography2, none of
which have been captured by
Anglophone writers who have
The official corporate seal of the Champlain & St.
Lawrence Rail Road
as adopted in 1832. This image is
taken from a wax impression made in 1936 from the
original steel die
of the seal. The CRHA insignia was
based on this seal.
Increasing agricultural
populations generated a
second important staple
export, wheat and flour, again
primarily for the British
market
lO
A rising population
also created an emerging
Collection of Donald F. Angus.
focused on the subject of the C&SL. Acceptance of an 1831
origin for the C&SL has generated untenable hypotheses
about American influence on the decision
of the promoters
to undertake the project
3.
The literature fails to provide a
satisfactory explanation about why the project idled and
almost collapsed after incorporation in 1832. Virtually
nothing is offered about possible connections to other rail,
canal,
an commercial projects being touted in Montreal in
the early 1830s
4•
And no consideration has been given to
whether the
S1. Johns -Laprairie route was a logical one for
the construction
of Canadas first railway. This paper offers
a preliminary framework for that
missing first chapter.
The Setting: The Changing Commercial Empire Of The
St. Lawrences
During the period 1800-1830, the economy of
Montreal underwent a number of significant changes. The
fur trade
6
vanished with the consolidation of the North-West
Company and the
Hudsons Bay Company in 1821 and the
subsequent routing
of that trades traffic through Hudsons market for manufactured goods
and supplies. Much
of the incoming mercantile trade and
the outbound staples trade went through the Montreal
business community. As the economy developed, local
financial firms appeared. The Bank of Montreal was
established in 1817
11
and other banks and insurance
companies followed soon after.
There was a simultaneous increase in acti vity in
transportation. Montreal-based ship construction and
ownership expanded as did involvement with movement of
freight to the interior. Following the launch of John Molsons
Accommodation, the first Canadian steamboat, at Montreal
in 1809, the steam-powered fleet grew rapidly1
2.
The increasing flow of goods and people led to rising
concern about the obstacles faced within the St.
Lawrence
waterway system which was the key transportation artery.
The Lachine Rapids,
just west of Montreal, additional sets
of rapids in the upper S1. Lawrence, as well as those on the
Ottawa and on the Richelieu between Chambly and St. Johns
were all major barriers
to transport within the developing
economy.
RAIL CANADIEN -493 44 MARS-AVRIL 2003
Canals had been
proposed as early as 1680 to
address the problems on the
St. Lawrence system
upstream from Montreal.
Little happened, however,
until the State of New York
began the Erie canal
in 1817
and
challenged Montreals
Table 1 Estimates of Potential Rail Freight Traffic (000 tons)19
Years
1824 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
St. Johns 4.2 5.7 4.7 4.4 nd 5.7 5.8 5.2 5.9 8.1 nd
Lachine cnfo 5.7 12.1 20.1 20.8 17.5 33.0 40.9 nd 47.2 40.7
(cnfo = canal not fully operational; nd = no data available)
commercial dominance of the Great Lakes hinterland. In
1819, Montreal businessmen started construction
of a canal
at Lachine
3
but the firm went bankrupt within two years.
The venture was taken over by the Lower Canada
government and the canal was completed in 1825.
In
1826, work began on the Rideau canal, an
undertaking designed to provide a secure route to Upper
Canada by avoiding the American border along the south
bank
of the St. Lawrence west of MontreaP4. The route led
up the Ottawa
River to the site of Canadas future capital
and then down the new canal
to Lake Ontario at Kingston. A
number of other smaller canals were built along both the
lower Ottawa and the section
of the St. Lawrence between
Lake Ontario and Montreal
s.
In a C&SL contex.t, canal developments toward the
south were more significant.
As early as 1815, pmposals had
appeared for a canal between St. Johns and Chambly
to avoid
the Chambly rapids. Government funding eventually
appeared, starting in 1827, though the canal was not
completed until 1843
16•
South of St. Johns, an important
event was the 1823 opening of the Champlain canal linking
the southern part
of Lake Champlain to the Erie Canal and
the Hudson River. This development on the American side
of the border provided St. Johns with an uninterrupted direct
water route
to the port of New York.
Railway Route
Options In Or Near Montreal
In the 1820s, the geography, economics, and
demographics of Montreal and its environs all indicated that
if there was immediate potential for the use of rail technology,
it was in settings which complemented the waterway system.
The most obvious potential locations were ones to bypass
the river obstacles mentioned previously
or to provide more
efficient service than could be offered
by ex.isting or planned
canals. Any
of these locations would have been relatively
short and none faced any major geographic impediment
as
long as bridging the St. Lawrence was not considered. To
assess the options for the location of Canadas first railway,
however, we must also consider a critical factor, availability
of and prospects for traffic.
For the route ultimately adopted for the
C&SL and
other potential lines running south from Montreal, the
primary data available are from the St. Johns Customs House.
St. Johns was the only official
POIt of entry on the American
border and all recorded cross-border traffic was captured there.
There are problems
of data comparability since some goods
were recorded by value, some by weight, and some by
quantity.
As a result, the data require both assumptions and
exclusions before any estimates
of potential rail traffic can
be generated. An estimate
of potential traffic based on St. Johns
Customs data misses two components. Smuggling was
common and we cant estimate how much cross-border traffic
chose to avoid the Customs House. Customs House data
also exclude domestic traffic between Montreal and the
American border. There is no obvious source of data to
measure these two forms of potential traffic though they
could have been estimated
by the original C&SL promoters
17
•
Other possible southern rail routes, all of which were
being promoted before construction
of the C&SL began in
early 1835, included a St. Johns -Chambly line to carry
traffic around the Chambly rapids, a route from
Chambly
toward Montreal as an alternative to one from St. Johns, and
lines down both the Richelieu and St. Francis valleys to the
St. Lawrence. There are no sources to document traffic on
these routes but there: are no reasons.
to assume they would
have attracted more or even
as much traffic as the St. Johns –
Montreal route IS. .
With the Lachine rapids to the west and the navigable
St. Lawrence
to the east, we can reasonably assume anyone
contemplating building a railway east and/or west from
Montreal on the
nOIth side of the liver would look first at the
western options, either a short line around the Lachine
rapids, or longer lines going beyond Lachine to the mouth
of the Ottawa or still further westward to a navigable harbour
on the upper St. Lawrence or Lake Ontario.
For these routes, there again
is one core data source
to provide a basis for estimating traffic potential. From 1825,
Lachine canal records provide a baseline indication
of traffic
moving immediately west of Montreal though it is
impossible to estimate how much more
chose to avoid the
canal tolls. The Lachine data, like that from St. Johns, are a
mix
of values, weights, and volumes with inherent risks in
conversion
to tonnage measures.
Within the limitations to the methodology, the
following are estimates of potential freight revenue sources
for railways on routes south or west from Montreal.
They
include grain and flour, foodstuffs and fish, ashes, liquor,
tobacco, and other merchandise normally shipped by the
barrel, box, or
other container appropriate for rail-based
handling. Excluded are bulk goods, particularly timber and
other wood products, which would have been difficult to
handle by rail at competitive rates, and categories like
livestock for which weight estimates are impossible.
Lachine canal data record passenger traffic for the
years after 1824 but comparable estimates about passenger
traffic to and from the south are
not available. The only
piece of data located about passenger traffic to/from the south
is an estimate of 5000 passengers on stages mnning between
St. Johns and the St. Lawrence during 1831. This estimate
MARCH -APRIL 2003 45 CANADIAN RAIL -493
A watercolour painting of St. fohns done in March 1838 by William Robert (1818-1845). The town then looked much as it had
when the railway was first promoted, a decade before. National Archives
of Canada, photo No. C-40032.
was offered by Jason Peirce of St. Johns in testimony before
an Assembly Committee on be
half of the C&SL project in
late
183l. For comparison, Lachine canal data for 1831 show
11,000 passengers on vessels using the canaFo.
Based on these estimates, all other things equal, one
would have expected those considering building a railway
dUling
this period to favour a route westward from Montreal
rather than a line toward the south. But all other things were
not
equal.
A New Technology For Lower Canada
The Canadas had very limited experience with
tramways and inclined planes before 1836. There is evidence
of three used in conjunction with British military engineering
or ordnance projects, one at the Quebec Citadel
ill the 1820s,
one near the nOith end
of the Rideau Canal also in the 1820s,
and one on the Niagara escarpment in the period pre-1790
21
•
There are also hints of two private lines in the 1820s. A
tramway may have been used for timber transport at Kingsey
in the St. Francis valley east of St. Johns though the evidence
suppOltiug the claim
is rather thin
22
• Another tramway, which
I
have not seen referred to in any secondary source, may
have been operated at John MacPherson & Companys
freight-forwarding facility on the Lachine canal. Evidence
documenting the existence of this line is equally slim -a
single
newspaper reference
23.
If it existed, the MacPherson tramway was the only
one
of the five near Montreal. The military-related lines were
all at
distant locations in the world of the 1820s, 160 miles
down the St. Lawrence at Quebec City, 120 miles northwest
at the site which became Ottawa, and
330 miles southwest
on
the Niagara frontier. The St. Francis valley line, if it
existed, was equally remote in terms of a Montreal
perspecti ve. No evidence has been found to indicate that
any
of these had any particular effect on public perceptions,
the press, the C&SL, or any of the other proposals for
locomotive-powered railways. These earliest Canadian
24
examples of rail-based transport seem to have been as obscure
in their own time as they are
in the modern record of Canadas
railway history.
The earliest identified Canadian references to
locomotive-powered railways are, of course, in press
accounts of developments in Britain
25
though these were
soon complemented by reports from the USA. Coverage
of
the new technology was erratic at best, and reports from
overseas appeared weeks after the event. Newspapers focused
on headline events (such as the openings
of the Stockton &
Darlington in 1825 or the Liverpool & Manchester in 1830
26
)
and generally failed to provide continuing reports on
ongoing stories or critical analysis of developments.
In the winter
of 1824-25, several references appeared
in the Montreal
Gazette
27
to the potential for railways in
Lower Canada and, in mid-1825, we see the first indication
that someone was
considering acting on the idea. On June
11, 1825, the
Gazette reported that enterprising and spirited
individuals were advocating construction
of a railway from
St. Johns to Longueuil on the south shore
of the St. Lawrence
directly opposite Montreal and a short distance downstream
from Laprairie.
The principals were not identified nor were any
details offered save for the proposed route. The project may
have been
just an idea in the mind of the editor though the
Gazette assured readers that we have heard it confidently
asserted that measures are being taken. Without further detail,
however, any relationship to the origins
of the C&SL remains
unknown.

RAIL CANADIEN -493
to MontreaP4 The Erie canal had opened in 1825 and started
to
draw traffic from the Lake Ontario basin that had
previously used the St. Lawrence route through
MontreaP5.
By 1828, the Oswego canal (from the eastern end of Lake
Ontario to the Erie system) was approaching completion
and presented an additional threat to Montreal since it could
attract traffic from the Canadian side
of Lake Ontario. Other
American canals loomed on the horizon. For example,
starting in 1825, there were proposals for a canal to connect
the American shore of Lake Ontario directly to Lake
Champlain
36
The fullest Montreal response to these American
threats would have been to undertake major improvements
on the St Lawrence between Lake Ontario and Lachine in
order to maintain the traditional role
of the river as the primary
economic artery. That however, was beyond the financial
capacity or political will available in Lower Canada. In a
much more limited way, though, the
development of a rail
link to serve both Montreal traffic and goods
coming down
the
St Lawrence could have been seen as a limited form of
competition with the American canal ventures,
At the same time, Quebec City was resisting
Montreals quest for commercial dominance. In 1827, spurred
by the Quebec City business community, the
Lower Canada
government had started work on a canal at Chambly, a
development that would have tended to pull trade crossing
the border at St.
Johns down the Richelieu toward Quebec
Cit
y
37. A St. Johns -Chambly railway, also being promoted
by
1828
38,
would have had a similar adverse effect on
Montreals position. There were also ongoing proposals for
improved navigation on the lower Richelieu39.
The Quebec
City
Committee of Trade actively supported these projects
in recognition
of their importance in that citys rivalry with
Montreal
40,
The C&SL project would certainly have been
seen in
Montreal as a means to offset this chaJlenge from
Quebec City.
By
the mid-1820s, calls for a shift in British trade
policy away from the traditional colonial-mercantiljst
tradition in the direction of free trade were starting to
gain support in the corridors of power in London. The
Montreal business community may have sensed that the UK­
Canadian trading relationship based on Imperial preference
(which they tended to support very strongly) was about to
change dramatically, One result
of such a change would have
been a commercial future for Montreal dependent on
connections with the USA. While they tried to defend the
economic status quo, it is possible that improving
communication with the United States was a form of
insurance against the future the Montreal businessmen saw
loorruntl. A north-south route may have been accepted by
default by the C&SL promoters in 1828 based on the
assumption that a east-west railway would not be able to or
would not be permitted to compete with the government­
operated Lachine canal.
A final possibility is that the C&SL was not planned
in is
olation; it may have been a north-south project
conceived in tandem with plans for another railway to run
west from Montreal, a project willch appeared on the scene
in 1833 and which will be discussed below.
48 MARS-AVRIL 2003
The focus here has been Montreal since no evidence
has been found
of St. Johns participation at this point. St.
Johns participants played important roles starting in 1831
but initially the C&SL appears to have been a Montreal­
based undertaking,
It would be three and a half years after the1828 notice
before the Champlain & St. Lawrence acilleved incqrporation
on the third attempt.
The struggle over the bill is i~teresting
in a political context because some of the factors involved
seem to have been related to conflicts that contributed to
the Rebellions of 1837-38
42
, but the difficulties over
incorporation are not really relevant to the focus of this paper.
During the quest for incorporation, however, important
details appeared about the evolution of the group behind
the project and simultaneous developments within the
Montreal commercial scene shed much additional light on
the railway
s origins,
The Wider Context Of The C&SL Project, 1830-1832
When the second attempt at incorporation was struted
in 183043, the
publicly identified group of supporters had
expanded, Willie Grant
s name was not attached to the public
notice tills time4
., Gates and McGill were joined by a number
of important new players. George Moffatt was a major force
in
both mercantile and staples trades, John Redpath had
become Montreals leading contractor as a result
of ills work
on
the Lachine and Rideau canals, Both had interests in
shipping and held directorships at the Bank of Montreal.
Thomas Pilllljps, a partner of Redpaths on the canal projects,
led efforts in February and March, 1831 to get the
C&SL bill
through the Assembly
45
Four leading French-Canadian businessmen also
joined the group. Joseph Masson, one of the wealthiest men
in Montreal, had commercial interests including trade in the
Richelieu valley, Francois-Antoine Larocque had
connections to
Masson and interests including shipping on
the Richelieu. Both were Bank
of Montreal directors. Tancred
Bouthelier and Phillipe de Rochblave do not appear
to have
been as influential as
Masson or Larocque but they had a
variety
of interests including retail trade as well as grain and
timber exporting. Recruitment
of these four may well have
been partly for ethno-political reasons since French-English
rivalries underlaid opposition to the
C&SL in the French­
Canadian dominated Assembly. But
if their involvement was
designed to expedite legislative success, the idea did not
work.
The second bid for incorporation died in Committee
when the Assembly rose in March
of 1831.
Over this period, other business developments offer
context for the C&SL project. In December of 1829, a
proposal had appeared to establish steamship service between
Montreal,
Quebec City and key ports in Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick. The original Montreal committee
established to promote tills project included McGill, Moffatt
and C.W. Grant
46
who were joined by Gates and others as
shareholders when the Quebec and Halifax Steam Navigation
Co, was founded in 1831
47,
Of interest in tills wider context
is
the presence, among the non-Montreal shareholders, of
Samuel Cunard of Halifax who played a leading role in the
introduction
of trans-Atlantic steamship service
48.
MARCH -APRIL 2003
In late 1830,
Gates led a move to
establish a company to
construct a basin for
cargo transfers and
warehousing on the
Lachine canal
49
. He was
joined by William
Forbes, who would be
involved with the third
C&SL attempt at in­
corporation, and seven
others, three of whom
would be included
among the list of 74
C&SL founders whose
names were included
within the C&SL statute
in
1832
5
0.
49 CANADIAN RAIL -493
The next year,
Gates, McGill, Masson,
Larocque, Bouthellier,
.
and Phillips sought
incorporation of a
company to build a
canal from Lachine to
This view of St. Johns was drawn by an unknown artist in the 1840s. Although the railway was then
in operation, the general scene was little changed from what it was like in the early 1830s.
National Archives
of Canada, photo No. C-401S2.
the Lake of Two
Mountains on the lower reaches of the Ottawa
5l
. They were
joined by James Logan, an important figure in the retail
trade who would also be a member of tbe fust C&SL board,
and
Andrew White, a member of the Redpath-Ph1l1ipsgroup
on
the Lachine and Rideau canal projects and a promoter of
the Montreal-west railway in 1833.
In the spring of 1831, Gates and Moffatt aquired
another common interest as joint trustees of the Inland
Assurance Company offering insurance for shipping and
cargo on the upper St. Lawrence and Lake Ontari0
52
. This
fUln was renamed Canada Inland Forwarding and Insurance
and,
after Gates death, a restructured group of principals
included John Frothingham, Joseph Shuter, and Charles
Brooke
53
Frothingham was. President of the City Bank, a C&SL
founder, and member of the audit committee established after
the railwayS opening.
Gates and Masson had been closely
involved with the establishment of the City Bank
54
and
Larocque was one the new Banks founding directors. Vice
President at City Bank was John Molson Jr, son of the man
who became the largest C&SL shareholder. Shuter was a
prominent merchant, a C&SL founder and early member of
the railways board, a Bank of Montreal director, and Peter
McGills father-in-law. Shuter and John Molson Jr would
also be among the promoters of the Montreal-west railway
project. Brooke was on the Bank of Montreal board and a
C&SL founder.
In 1831, the Ottawa Steamboat Company was
established to operate on the Ottawa between Montreal and
the soon-to-open Rideau canal. Initial principals included
Gates, McGiU, and John Molson Sr. In 1835, the firm became
the Ottawa & Rideau Forwarding Company with John
Molson Sr, McGill, Redpath, Frothingham, and Phillips
identified as owners
55
.
These ventures illustrate the scope of the business
connections at work among key figures involved in the
C&SL project and demonstrate that the line grew out of a
context which went far beyond an isolated idea of building
a small railway.
Despite continued opposition to the C&SL project
in the Assembly, interest in railways heated up during the
winter
of 1830-31. In December of 1830, Peter Fleming, who
had previously suggested building a railway instead of the
Chambly canal, advocated a railway from Montreal westward
througb Lachine, across the mouth of the Ottawa, and
beyond it to Brockville
56
. The Montreal Gazette offered
strong support for Flemings idea though his proposal did
not take a more tangible form until 1833.
While reporting on Flemings proposal for the
Brockville line, the Gazette also noted that two more railway
projects for the south shore
of the St. Lawrence had appeared
since
1828
57
. Public attention has been occupied for some
time with the plan for a railway from St. Johns to Laprai.rie,
of another from SI. Johns to Stanstead
58
, of a third from St.
Johns to Chambly59, and of a fourth from Chambly to
Longueuil. Knowing if any principals in the latter three
projects60 had ties to the C&SL group would be highly
desirable but no details have been located.
RAIL CANADIEN -493 50 MARS-AVRIL 2003
The preamble to the act incorporating the Champlain & St. Lawrence consists of one long sentence of 1388 words (not 1453
words as some accounts state).
1t is quoted in full below. The Latin heading translates to Second year of William 1V, Chapter
58. The preamble lists all 74 of the original incorporators, and Horatio Gates (soon to become president of the Bank of
Montrealfor the second time) leads the list, with John Molson immediately after. Jason C. Peirce is well down thetist.
Anno Secundo Gulielmi IV -Cap. LVIII
(Feb. 25th 1832)
An Act for making a Rail-road from Lake
Champlain to the River St. Lawrence.
Whereas the facilitating and dispatching the
carriage and conveyance of goods, passengers, etc.,
between the navigable waters of Lake Champlain and
the River St.
Lawrence, opposite to the city of
Montreal, by means of a Rail-road, will
be of great
public advantage, and will afford a more
easy, cheap
and expeditious conveyance for all goods, wares,
commodities, passengers, etc., and generally
increase the trade and commerce of this Province,
and
in other respects be of great public utility: and
whereas the several persons hereinafter named are
desirous, at their own cost and charges, to make and
maintain the said Rail-road, but cannot effect the same
without the aid and authority of the Provincial
Parliament; wherefore for obtaining and perfecting the
good effects and purposes aforesaid:
be it therefore
enacted by the Kings Most Excellent Majesty,
by and
with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council
and Assembly of the Province of Lower Canada,
constituted and assembled
by virtue of and under the
authority of
an Act passed in the Parliament of Great
Britain, entitled An Act for making more effectual
provision for the Government of the Province of Lower
Canada; and
it is hereby enacted by the authority of
the same, that Horatio Gates, John Molson, Samuel
Gerrard, Samuel Gale, Peter McGill, John
Frothingham, Thomas Blackwood, Adam L. Macnider,
Joseph Donegani, John
E. Mills, James Holmes, Jean
D. Bernard, William Guild, James Logan, John
McKenzie, William Peddie, Frederick Griffin, Benjamin
Hart, Samuel
A. W. Hart, Isaac Gregory, Benjamin
Lewis, Abner P. Herley, George J. Holt, William L. Coit,
Samuel McLure, George Brush, William Hedge, John
Torrance, James Millar, William Edmonstone, Lewis
Betts, Smith Sanborn, Campbell Sweeney, Benjamin
Brewster, Cyrus Brewster, William Brewster, Joseph
Shuter, Turton Penn, George Davies, Joseph Masson,
Joseph
T. Barrett, J. A. Cartier, Henry Joseph, Thomas
S. Brown, Norman Williams, David Torrance, Louis
Marchand,
Cyrus Carlton, Stephen Field, arlin
Bostwick, Hosea B. Smith, Jason C. Peirce, Walter
Benny,
John Try, James Henderson, Jeth L.
Weatherley, William Lymon, J. Glennon, Robert Jones,
Joshua Hobart, Roswell Corse, John Matthewson,
Charles
S. Delorme, Charles Brooke, E.M. Leprohon,
T. Bouthillier, Dwight P. Janes, Joshua Bell, Noah Shaw, William Spier, William Freeland, John Thompson,
William Forbes, Oliver Wait together with such person
or persons as shall under the provisions of this Act,
become subscribers to and proprietors of any share
or shares
in the Rail-road hereby authorized to be
made, and the several and respective heirs, executors,
administrators, curators and assigns, being proprietors
of
any share or shares in the Rail-road hereby
authorized to be made, are and shall be, and be united
into a Company for the carrying
on, making, completing
and maintaining the said intended Rail-road, according
to the rules, orders and directions hereinafter
expressed, and shall for that purpose be one body
politic and corporate, of the name of The Company
of Proprietors of the Champlain and
St. Lawrence Rail­
road; and by that name shall have perpetual
succession, and shall have a common seal; and by
that name shall and may sue and
be sued, and also
shall and may have power and authority to purchase
lands, tenements and hereditaments for them and their
successors and assigns, for the use of the said Rail­
road, without His Majestys Lettres dAmortissement;
saving nevertheless to the Seigneur or Seigneurs
within whose censive the lands, tenements and
hereditaments so purchased may
be situate, his and
their several and respective droits dindemnite, and
all other seigneurial rights whatever, and also to sell
any of the said lands, tenements and hereditaments
purchased for the purposes aforesaid; and any person
or persons, bodies, politic or corporate, or
communities, may give, grant, bargain, sell or convey
to
the said Company of Proprietors, any lands,
tenements or hereditaments for the purposes
aforesaid, and the same may re-purchase of the said
Company without Lettres dAmortissements, and the
said Company of Proprietors and their successors
and assigns shall
be, and are hereby authorized and
empowered from and after the passing of this Act, by
themselves, their deputies, agents, officers, workmen
and servants, to make and complete a Rail-road, to
be called the Champlain and St. Lawrence Rail-road,
from, at or near the village of Dorchester, commonly
called St. Johns,
in the District of Montreal, in as direct
a line as may
be found practicable, and as local
situation, as circumstances and the nature of the
ground will admit,
to the River St. Lawrence, opposite
or nearly opposite to the city of Montreal: provided
always, that the commencement of the said Rail-road
from, at or near Dorchester aforesaid, shall not
be at
a greater distance from the lower extremity of the Port
thereof upwards than half a mile; and provided also
that the termination of the said Rail-road
on the River
MARCH -APRIL 2003
8t. Lawrence shall be at the village of Laprairie
inclusively, or
at some point between the village of
Laprairie
and the head or upper end of the Island of
8t. Helen; and for the purposes aforesaid the said
Company of Proprietors, their deputies, servants,
agents and workmen, are hereby authorized and
errpowered to enter into and upon the lands and
grounds of the Kings Most Excellent Majesty, or of
any person or persons, bodies politic, corporate or
collegiate, or communities whatsoever,
and to survey
and take levels of the same, or any part thereof, and
to set out and ascertain such parts thereof as they
shall think necessary
and proper for making the said
intended Rail-road, and
all such other works, matters
and conveniences as they shall think proper and
necessary for making, effecting, preserving,
improving, completing, maintaining and using the said
intended Rail-road
and other works, and also to bore,
dig, cut, trench, get, remove, take, carry
away, and
lay earth, clay, stone, soil, rubbish, trees, roots of
trees, beds
of gravel or sand, or any other matters or
things which may
be dug or got in making the said
intended Rail-road or other works, or out
of the lands
or grounds of any person or persons adjoining or lying
convenient thereto,
and which may be proper, requisite
or necessary for making
or repairing the said intended
Rail-road, or works incidental or relative thereto, or
which may hinder, prevent or obstruct the making using
or completing, extending or maintaining the same
respectively, according to the intent and purpose of
this Act;
and to make, build, erect and set up in or
upon the said intended Rail-;road,or upon the lands
adjoining or near the same respectively, such
and so
many houses, warehouses, tOil-houses, watch-
In the fall of 1831, notice was given of the intent to
again seek incorporation
of the C&SUl. This notice was
placed by William Forbes, involved with Gates and his
colleagues in the Lachine Basin project, and Oliver Wait, a
contractor associated with Redpath, Phillips, a
nd White on
the
Lachine and Rideau canals. This time, the Montreal
Gazette mounted a vigorous campaign of support. Much of
this took the form of accounts of American railway
developments
62
but, in case the subtle message was missed,
the paper could be explicit. For example, on October
6, the
Gazette commented that Our enterprising neighbors in the
United
States have become sensible of the great advantages
to be derived from the construction of railroads and, unlike
the
sages who sit in our legislature, are disposed to grant
every facility to those who wish to embark on such
undertaking.
With this third attempt, despite continued
uncertainties about the intent of the C&SL promoters
63
and
a petition from the Chambly area asking for improvements
to
the road system instead of approval for the rail way
project64, the legislative effort succeeded and the railway
bill recei ved Royal Assent in February, 1832. A much larger
group
of promoters had joined the project but the outcome
51 CANADIAN RAIL -493
houses, weighing beams, cranes, fire engines, steam
engines, or other engines, either stationary or
locomotive, inclined planes, machines, and other
works, ways, roads, and conveniences,
as and when
the said Company of Proprietors shall think requisite
and convenient for the purposes of the said Rail-road;
and also from time to time to alter, repair, divert, widen,
enlarge, and extend the same, and also to make,
maintain, repair and alter any fences or passages
over,
under or through the said intended Rail-road, and to
construct, erect, make and do all other matters and
things which they shall think convenient and
necessary for the making, effecting, extending,
preserving, improving, completing and easy using
of
the said intended Rail-road and other works, in
pursuance of and according to the true intent and
meaning of this Act; they, the said Company of
Proprietors, doing
as little damage as may be, in the
execution of the several powers to them hereby
granted,
and making satisfaction in manner hereinafter
mentioned
to the owners or proprietors of, or the
persons interested in the lands, tenements,
hereditaments, waters, water-courses, brooks, or
rivers respectively, which shall be taken, used,
removed, prejudiced, or of which the course shall
be
altered, or for all damages to be by them sustained in
or by the execution of all or any of the powers of this
Act;
and this Act shall be sufficient to indemnify the
said Company of Proprietors and
their servants,
agents or workmen, and
all other persons whatsoever
for what
they, or any of them, shall do by virtu.e of the
powers hereby granted, subject nevertheless
to such
provisions and restrictions as are hereinafter
mentioned.
appears ultimately a result of a decision by Papineau to
support the
bi1l
65,
a decision for which there is no clear
explanation.
What was perhaps most significant about the group
finally empowered to build the railway was the addition
of
two men from St. Johns who would ultimately play key roles.
Jason Peirce was a
freight forwarder and agent for Lake
Champlain steamboats
66.
Robert Jones was a Legislative
Councilor with business interests including a toll bridge
built across the Richelieu at St. Johns in 1826
67•
Both had
been
involved in an unsuccessful 1829 attempt to gain
approval for a turnpike road from St. Johns to the St.
Lawrence
68
• In that effort, Peirce and Jones had been joined
by others including William Lindsay and William MacRae,
senior officers at the St. Johns Customs House. Lindsay also
had interests in shipping on the Richelieu.
MacRae was a
member
of the Board of Commissioners for the Chambly
canal
69
and was a brother-in-law of George Moffatt7° from
the C&SL group in Montreal. Neither Lindsay nor MacRae
were
included in the group of 74 founders named in the
C&SL statute, but they soon joined Peirce and Jones within
the project with
Lindsay becoming the senior manager of
the C&SL in November of 1834
71
RAIL CANADIEN -493 52
This painting, done about 1836, is entitled Preparing for a Railroad Through the Woods,
Lower Canada
. 1t must, therefore refer to the Champlain & St. Lawrence. and so is. the
earliest known view
of railway construction in Canada. Note the dense woods that exis.ted
before the land was cleared; so different from the same countryside today.
National Archives
of Canada, photo No. C-40332.
Even after the Champlain
& St. Lawrence was open for business, not all the stock that had
been subscribed had been paid
fOl: This receipt, dated August 26 1836, was for the tenth and
final installment
of £12 /10 Halifax Currency (equal to $50.00) on five shares subscribed for
by Robertson Masson Strang
& Co. at £25 ($100) per share.
Collection
of Fred Angus
MARS-AVRIL 2003
The Period Of Donnancy,
1832-1834
On May I, 1832, a
C&SL committee headed
by
Gates opened the book for
share subscriptions
72
but the
timing was unfortunate.
Within weeks, Lower
Canada was caught up in an
international cholera epi­
demic and close to 2000
died out of Montreals
population of 32,000.
Among the dead were John
Fleming, President of the
Bank of Montreal, and
Oliver Wait from Gates
C&SL committee.
The next year, there
was an unusually poor
harvest and cholera hit
again in 1834. The pro­
longed business slump was
desClibed as·a:
very: great
and unparalleled.depress­
ion ih trade 7). by Jason
Peirce at the first C&SL
general meeting in late
November of 1834.
Economic circumstan­
ces may explain some
of the
problems encountered in
placing C&SL shares
though Peirces comment
about depression and
literature assumptions
about a shortage of capital
may be somewhat mis­
leading. During 1833, for
example, the City Bank
placed £40,000 of new
shares with little trouble
74
and the Bank of Montreal
continued to post record
profit levels
7
>.
Distractions likely
affected several of the key
players. Gates had become
President of the Bank of
Montreal following John
Flemings death. At the
same time, in mid-1832,
McGill and Moffatt got
involved in a major land
development and migration
venture, the British
American Land Company.
McGill attended the
MARCH -APRIL 2003 53 CANADIAN RAIL -493
The wharf of the Champlain & St. Lawrence Rail Road at Laprairie as it appeared after the terminus had been moved to St.
Lambert in 1852. National Archives of Canada, photo No. C-34156.
organizing meeting in London and he and Moffatt became
Canadian Commissioners for the firm
76
. Both invested
considerable time on this companys difficulties with the
Assembly before approval was given in 1834 for the
acquisition of 850,000 acres east of the Richelieu
77.
StiJI another possible explanation for a delay lurks in
the background. The relationship of the Montreal-to­
Brockville railway project, originally proposed by Peter
Fleming in 1830, to the C&SL is uncertain but the large
number
of promoters involved in both undertakings raises
important questions that need to be answered.
Notices appearing in the Montreal
Gazette in 1833
and 1834
78
name 20 promoters of the proposed Montreal-to­
Brockville line. Of the 14 about whom some details have
been located, 12 had either direct personal
involvement in
the
C&SL project prior to opening day in 1836 or very close
connections
to key figures in the C&SL group.
Frederick Griffin was secretary of Gates 1832
committee to raise the C&SLs capital. Joseph Shuter became
a member
of the C&SL Board in December, 1835. Benjamin
Holmes was cashier (general manager) of the Bank of
Montreal and would also be a member of the first C&SL
Board in November, 1834. Thomas Phillips had been active
in
attempts to get the C&SL bill passed in 1831. Robert
Nelson (physician to John Molson Sr) would also become a
member
of the flfSt C&SL Board
79
John TOiTance (best known
for his interests in St. Lawrence shipping and his role as a
director
of the Bank of Montreal), Benjamin Brewster, and
Samuel Gale were all founders named
in the C&SL statute.
Stanley Bagg (on the City Bank Board with Phillips)
and Andrew White were contractors who had been partners
of John Redpath and Phillips. White had also been associated
with Gates, McGill, Phillips, et al in the Lake of Two
Mountains canal project. John Molson Jr (also on the City
Bank Board) wouJd inherit his fathers C&SL shares in early
1836 and be the largest shareholder when the C&SL opened. Henry Griffin was notary for John Molson Sr and a brother
of
Frederick Griffin who, as indicated, had close connections
to the C&SL.
Though this is highly speculative, it seems possible
that the C&SL project could have been deliberately delayed .
for a time while legislative approval for the railway west
from Montreal was being sought so that the two lines could
be built and opened
at the same time. If that had been the
objective, it was not achieved. The Brockville venture did
not get legislative approval though efforts continued
to at
least the autumn of 1836
80
by which time the C&SL was
operational.
Consideration of possible influence of the Brockville
proposal on the C&SL merits further exploration for another
reason in addition to the presence
of the significant number
of interlocking promoters. Starting in 1833, the rivalry on
the St Lawrence between the Torrance-owned Montreal Tow
Boat Company and Molsons St Lawrence Steamboat
Company began to change. That year, the two firms launched
a new vessel as a
jointly-owned venture. It appears that
competition on the river was very quickly replaced by a
Torrance-Molson cartel with additional jointly-owned
vessels, co-operation in scheduling, and elimination of price
competition
81
. With both Torrance and Molson interests in
both the
C&SL and Brockville railway projects, it seems
logical to wonder if the co-operative model launched on
the river in 1833 may not have also been considered for the
railways being planned at the same time.
While we do not
have enough evidence to do more
than speculate about the significance
of the ties between the
C&SL project and the Brockville proposal
82,
it is interesting
to note that other questions of this nature apply to this same
period. Peirce and Lindsay, two
of the C&SL players from
St.
Johns, were also members of a St. Johns committee
promoting a rail-way from St. Johns eastward to Lake Magog
in 1835
83
.
RAIL CANADIEN -493 54
The British America, built in 1829, was one of the Torrance
steamboats.
We see it here, pictured on a china platter made in
England about 1835. The Montreal skyline and a rival Molson
boat appear
in the background. Note the towers of Notre Dame,
not yet built, but depicted as they would be after 1843.
Collection
of Fred Angus.
Examination of these possible factors involved in
the lack
of action on the C&SL project over the period 1832-
34 has obviously been based on the assumption that the
time lag was unexpected
or abnormal. There is no evidence
about the pace of activity expected by the C&SL group
when incorporation was achieved other than the deadlines
in the statute
84.
There is, however, evidence from the USA which
provides some context for progress on the C&SL. During
the period 1831-1837, eight railways were opened in
northern
New York relatively close to the Canadian border.
Their chronological data, drawn from von Gerstners 1838-
39 survey
of American railways85, closely parallel the C&SL
experience.
Table 2
RR Charters & Openings,
Northern New York State, 1826-37
Chartered
Opened Years
Delay
Mohawk & Hudson 1826 1831 5
Ithaca & Oswego 1828 1834 6
Saratoga & Schenectady 1831 1833 2
Tonowanda 1832 1837 5
Rensselaer & Saratoga 1833 1835 2
Utica & Schenectady 1833 1836 3
Buffalo & Niagara Falls 1834 1837 3
Lockport & Niagara Falls 1834 1837 3
Average
of the 8 lines 3.6
MARS-AVRIL 2003
When this New York pattern is considered,
particularly with its trend of decreasing delays over the
decade, passage of four years between incorporation and the
opening of the C&SL does not appear especially
extraordinary. Regardless of the reasons that led to a lack of
action for more than two years, the clock was running and
by
the summer of 1834, the December 1 st deadline for
completion of a survey and organization of the company
loomed ever larger. Gates had died in April of 1834
86
but
Jason Peirce
of St. Johns seems to have filled the leadership
vacuum.
By the autumn of 1834, enough C&SL shares had
been subscribed to permit formal organization
of the firm
87.
There are uncertainties about Peirces role in placing shares
during this period
88
, but he and Robert Jones saved the C&SL
in one critical respect.
On their own accord, they ordered a
survey
of a potential route to meet the terms of the statute. At
the organizational meeting on 29 November, decisions were
made to accept route and specifications recommendations
coming out of the survey, bring in the funds subscribed, and
start construction when
weather permitted in early 1835
89.
The dormant project soon turned into a railway under
construction and by mid-1836 the line would be open -fOT
business.
Conclusions
The goal of the research reported here has been to
provide a better understanding of the vicissitudes
surrounding the origins of Canadas first locomotive­
powered railway. The results are mixed.
The origins of the C&SL have been pushed back three
years to 1828 and it
now seems that primary credit for
establishing the railway should probably go to Horatio Gates.
The evolution of the project over the period 1828-34 has
been found to be closely connected to other commercial
developments and the relationships among the C&SL
promoters and across various business undertakings have
been revealed in some detail. Vital questions remain,
however.
Many potentially significant details are missing
about both the C&SL and the Brockville railway project of
1833-36 as well as about other business undertakings at this
time. At the top
of this list are the complete lists of names
from the first two
C&SL petitions and the two Brockville
project petitions since the original petitions have not been
located.
It also seems likely that there were other important
personal and
business linkages about which not even a hint
has yet been uncovered.
The basis for selecting the St. Johns
-Laprairie route has been assessed but answers
about the
choice
are still speculative, as are the explanations for the
lull in activity by the
C&SL promoters over the two years
following
incorporation in 1832.
While the missing first chapter on the C&SL has been
started, it is still far from complete.
MARCH -APRIL 2003 55 CANADIAN RAIL -493
Notes
CHAMPLAIN. 4I

  • 183 Eo
    1 R.R. Brown, The Champlain & St.
    Lawrence, Bulletin
    of the Railway and
    Locomotive Historical Society (BRLHS),
    39 (1936) 6-62; Lucien Brault, Le
    Premier Chemin de Fer Can ad ien,
    Bulletin des Recherches Historique,
    1936,526-537; N.& H. Mika, Canadas
    First Railway (Belleville, 1985); F.F.
    Angus, ed. 1836-1986: A Tribute to
    Canadas First Railway on Its
    Sesquicentennial (St. Constant, 1986);
    [The Angus
    volume includes all papers
    dealing with the origins of the C&SL
    which have appeared in the journal
    Canadian Rail]; L.F. Gillam, The
    Champlain & St. Lawrence Railroad
    (Rotherham, S Yorks, nd (c.1986)); F.
    Cinq-Mars, L Avenement du Premier
    Chemin de Fer au Canada (St. Jean sur
    Richelieu, 1986); see also G.J.J.
    Tulchinsky,
    The River Barons: Montreal
    Businessmen and the Growth
    of Industly
    and
    Transportation, 1837-53 (Toronto,
    1977).
    ABOVE: A drawing, by Robert Brown, showing the Dorchester, the first
    locomotive of the Champlain & St. Lawrence.
    BELOW: The Dorchesters name plate.
    2 See A. Shortt on Horatio Gates, Journal of Canadian
    Banking (lCB), 30 (1922-23) 44, and on Peter McGill, JCB,
    31 (1923-24) 306. In the Dictionary of Canadian Biography
    (DCB),
    see J.-C. Robert on Horatio Gates, vol. VI (1987)
    278, and
    A. Dubuc on John Molson, vol. VII (1988) 620. The
    book by
    Cinq~Mars(1986) does reveal some of the pre-1831
    roots
    but there has not been any m:ore recent literature ·-in
    English to reflect Cinq-Mars work or recognize the
    significance of the references in the four biographies.
    3 Brown, for example (1936, 10), refers
    to possible influence
    of the Rainhill trials on the Liverpool & Manchester in 1829
    but
    goes on to state that it is much more likely that the
    opening
    of the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad was the real
    deciding factor. Gillam (c.1986, 9) was even more more
    explicit when he stated, Doubtless the opening …
    (of the
    Mohawk and Hudson) … proved to be the turning point.
    4 Two exceptions are references by Robert, DCB, vol. VI
    (1987) 278, to the evolution
    of Horatio Gates interest from
    a canal to the
    C&SL project, and by Cinq-Mars (1986) to
    some
    of the common business interests among the C&SL
    promoters.
    5
    This subhead is based on the title of D.G. CreightonS
    seminal study, The Commercial Empire of the St. Lawrence,
    1760-1850 (Toronto, 1937).
    6 See H.A. Innes, The Fur Trade in Canada (New Haven,
    1930).
    7 The major studies are those
    of A.R. Lower, The Assault on
    the Canadian Forest (New Haven, 1938) and Great Britains
    Woodyard (Montreal, 1973).
    8
    See H.1. Cowan, British Emigration to British North
    America (Toronto, 1961), tables I -III, 288-90. 9 See Census and Statistical Returns for Lower Canada,
    Journa1s of the Honse of Assembly of Lower Canada
    (lHALC) , vol. 41 (1831-32), Appendix Volume, unnumbered
    appendix.
    10 By the 1830s, the wheat and flour being exported was
    coming primarily from Upper Canada; see
    F. Ouellet, Lower
    Canada, 1790 -1840 (Toronto, 1980), 120-21 and table 86,
    388.
    11 See M. Denison, Canadas First Bank: A History of the
    Bank
    of Montreal, 2 vols. (Toronto, 1966/67).
    12 See G.H. Wilson, The Application of Steam to St.
    Lawrence
    VaUey Navigation, MA Thesis, McGill University,
    1961,
    and F. Mackeys recent Steamboat Connections:
    Montreal to Upper Canada, 1816-43, (Montreal, 2000).
    13 See G.J.J. Tulchinsky, The Construction of the First
    Lachine Canal, MA Thesis, McGill University, 1960.
    14 Before the final decision to build the Rideau canal,
    serious consideration bad been given at high levels in
    Whitehall
    to building a tramway rather than a canal. This
    idea
    came out of proposals from James George of Quebec
    City for a tramway
    to deal with the problems associated with
    the St. Lawrence route; see R.W. Passfield, Ordnance Supply
    Problems
    in the Canadas: The Quest for an Improved Military
    Transport System, 1814-1828, HSTC Bulletin: Quarterly
    Newsletter for the History
    of Science and Technology of
    Canada, vol. 5, no. 2, May, 1981, 187-209.
    RAIL CANADIEN -493
    15 See 1.P. Heisler, The Canals of Canada, (Ottawa, 1973)
    and R.F. Leggett, Canals
    of Canada (Vancouver, 1976) for
    general surveys.
    For more detail on specific geographical
    sections, see Leggetts Rideau Waterway (Toronto, 1955)
    and his Ottawa River Canals (Toronto, 1988).
    16 See P-A. Sevigny, Trade and Navigation
    on the Chambly
    Canal (Ottawa, 1983).
    17 The two senior officers
    of the St. Johns Customs House
    in
    the late 1820s, W.D. Lindsay and William MacRae,
    ultimately became involved in the C&SL project though
    only, it seems, after the decision had been made by the
    original promoters to focus on a route from St. Johns to the
    St. Lawrence.
    18 This assumption is supported by observations within the
    Assembly debate on the C&SL,
    21 January 1832, that the St.
    Johns -Montreal route was the greatest and most frequented
    route
    between the United States and Montreal, and that
    the greatest part of the articles that came that way from the
    States were for the consumption
    of Montreal, Quebec City
    Mercury, 4 Febmary 1832; see also the letter from
    S in the
    Montreal
    Gazette, 22 May 1828. Strong criticism of the
    proposed St. Johns -St. Lawrence route came from Quebec
    City interests as soon
    as it became public knowledge; see
    for example the series of letters from Observer in the
    Quebec City Mercury, 12 April, 26 April, and 27 May, 1828.
    19 Lachine estimates are based
    on data from annual reports
    of the Lachine Canal Commission in Tulchinsky (1960)
    appendices 1-2, 116-17; St. Johns estimates, 1824-26, are
    based on data quoted in
    1. Bouchette, The British Dorrlinions
    in North America (London, 1831) vol.
    1, 451-52; St. Johns
    estimate, 1827, is based on JHALC, vol. 38(1828-29)
    Appendix C; St. Johns estimates, 1829-31, are from evidence
    to a Legislative Assembly COmrrllttee by Jason Peirce of St.
    Johns when appearing on
    behalf of the C&SL promoters,
    JHALC, vol. 41 (1831-32) Appendix Volume, Minutes of
    Evidence, 30 December 1831; St. Johns estimates, 1832-33,
    are based on data in Montreal
    Gazette, 24 December 1833.
    20 St Johns estimate in JHALC, vol.
    41 (1831-32) Appendix
    Volume, Minutes
    of Evidence, 30 December 1831; Lachine
    data appear in Tulchinsky (1960) 117.
    21 R.R. Brown,
    Canadas Earliest Railways, BRLHS, 78
    (1949) 50-55.
    It should be noted that only one, the Rideau
    Canal line, was a level-ground tramway; the other two were
    inclined planes. The Quebec plane was steam-powered while
    the
    Niagara plane was operated by a capstan. While the
    Quebec City and Rideau lines had been constmcted in the
    1820s, the
    Niagara incline had been used by the British
    military during the previous century and abandoned when
    the Americans assumed control
    of the land on the east side
    of the Niagara liver in the 1790s.
    22 Browns Canadas Earliest Railways (52-55) also deals
    with the Kingsey tramway. His references to James George
    and
    Kingsey as a location both appear open to question,
    especiaUy in the absence of reference to George or to Kingsey
    in the passage
    in the Halifax Acadian Recorder which is his
    primalY evidence for the tramways existence. The
    Recorders
    56 MARS-AVRIL 2003
    detail (13 February 1830) is limited to stating that an
    experiment … has been tried in the woods 120 miles from
    Quebec. Given the evidence, I am not convinced that the
    Kingsey line actually 23 The Quebec City
    Mercury, 9 January 1830, stated that a
    short piece of Rail-Road made by Messrs MacPherson &
    Co … which is
    of three-inch plank with a small edge, has
    been
    in use for three or four years … It is interesting to note
    that the reference to this tramway appeared first
    in a Quebec
    City paper and was reprinted in the Montreal
    Gazette nine
    days later. No Montreal-sourced reference to the MacPherson
    line has been found. While the evidence for this line is
    limited, it seems better than that available for the Kingsey
    tramway. David MacPherson, a member
    of the family firm
    became an important player when the Grand Trunk was
    organized in the early 1850s; s
    ee The Hon. David Lewis
    MacPherson, in J.C.
    Dents The Canadian Portrait Gallery
    (Toronto, 1881).
    24 Canada in this context excludes the eastern colonies,
    specifically Nova Scotia, where the General Mining
    Association opened three short tramways at coal mines at
    Albion Mines in Pictou County and both Sydney Mines
    and Bridgeport on Cape Breton Island at the beginning of
    the 1830s.
    25 Montreal.
    Gazette, 30 October and 24 November; 1824,
    12
    Febmary 1825.
    26 The Montreal
    Gazette can-ied eight reports on the L&M
    between 7 December 1829 and 4 November 1830.
    27 Montreal
    Gazette, 24 November and 1 December, 1824.
    28 Montreal
    Gazette, 11 Febmary 1826 and 19 April 1827;
    Journals of the Legislative Council of Lower Canada
    [JLCLC] (1826) 43.
    29 See Montreal
    Gazette, 4 December 1824, 16 August and
    30 August 1830 for reference to
    problems with the roads
    between St. Johns and the St. Lawrence.
    30 See Montreal Gazette, 10 April, 21 April, 12 May, 22
    May, 5 June, 9 June, and
    10 July for a total of 11 reports and
    letters, a number
    of which appeared first in the Quebec City
    Mercury and/or the Quebec City
    Star.
    31 Montreal Gazette, 5 June 1828.
    32 The petition was presented in the Legislative Council
    on 5 December 1828, JLCLC (1828-29) 45 and in the
    Assembly five days later, JHALC, vol. 38 (1828-29) 122.
    33 Many details about individuals here and in following
    section are not footnoted.
    Three major sources have been
    used: the Montreal Gazette, 1824-1840 inclusive;
    biographical studies in DCB, vols.VI-X inclusive; and
    Tulchinskys River Barons which served as inspiration and
    model for much
    of my research.
    34 The New York Canals, in
    North American Review, vol.
    14, no. 34, January, 1822, 249.
    35 Montreal
    Gazette, 6 March 1824, 7 April 1824, 14 and
    21 May 1825, 23 October 1826.
    MARCH -APRIL 2003 57 CANADIAN RAIL -493
    36 Montreal Gazette, 7 May 1825.
    1853. Cbdlli}tlRin aftdSt.LaWrenceRantodtl.
    . . iIMJ~ . lAJ!31E: N~8~
    37 Montreal Gazette, 21 September 1829
    and
    21 April 1831.
    ,TO T.A..~,~.dW 61S;:M:ONp:aY~ ~~o:ri$T L
    . —–_._—-.-.—-, —-.
    38 Among its supporters was Peter
    Fleming, the first engineer on the
    Chambly canal; JHALC, vol. 40 (1831)
    156.
    39 Montreal Gazette, 12 May and 9 June
    1828.
    40 Montreal
    Gazette, 23 November 1828.
    41
    See for example the flow of reports
    reflecting fears about the future of the
    timber trade to the UK in Montreal
    Gazette, 5 and 12 February 1831, 14,21
    and 23 April 1831, 12 November 1832,
    and 4 March 1834, and in the Quebec City
    Mercury, 15, 18, and 22 January 1831,
    and 22 February 1831.
    E:splari.Uon o~-lUrka·-)I. B., .Erpr: H. l,.:.oor FrOipt.
    I. .tll N. l)OD~D:IlR.!Il
    42 Reference should be made, however,
    to
    one of the most interesting
    contemporary accounts of the opening of
    A Champlain & St. Lawrence timetable of 1853, after the line had been extended
    to Rouses Point. CRHA Archives, Donation from I Norman Lowe
    the C&SL The Montreal Vindicator of
    26 July 1836 contains a lengthy letter from TSB,
    presumably TS. Brown, the papers founder, a supporter of
    the reform movement who became one of the leaders of the
    patriote rebellion which broke out the next year. His account
    .
    presents the C&SL within the context of the ongoing
    political struggle in Lower Canada. Most of the Montreal
    C&SL promoters were on the opposite side of the political
    fence and vigorously
    opposed the reform movement.
    43 Montreal
    Gazette, 23 December 1830.
    44 While Grants name was not on the public notice
    in the
    fall
    of 1830, he spoke on behalf of the project before an
    Assembly committee in February of 1831; JHALC, vol. 41
    (1831-32) Appendix Volume, Minutes of Evidence, 24
    February 1831. The reason for his lowered public profile is
    uncertain. Perhaps it was because his position as a Legislative
    Councilor was seen to be in conflict. For example,
    in February
    of 1830, he had presented four petitions in the Legislative
    Council from residents in the St. Johns -Laprairie region
    seeking action
    to improve roads in the district. JLCLC (1830)
    35.
    Another possibility is that his political profile might
    have been seen as disadvantageous to the C&SL project.
    When the C&SL bill was finally passed in 1832, Grants
    name was not included among the 74 men who were
    empowered to build the railway.
    45 See Montreal Gazette, 22 February 1831 for Phillips
    public notice (required because of a change to the petition
    while
    it was before the House), and 5 April 1831 for a letter
    from
    A Friend To Public Improvement which refers to the
    fate
    of the bill in the Assembly. The Quebec City Mercury of
    5 April 1831 refuted suggestions that Quebec City influence
    had caused the failure
    of the bill while carefully recognizing
    that there was strong
    opposition to the C&SL from those
    who are interested in the Chambly cana!. See also JHALC,
    vol.
    40 (1831) 273, 302, 356, 364. 46
    Montreal Gazette, 21 December 1829.
    47 Public Statutes
    of Lower Canada (PSLC), 1 Will. IV, ch.
    33, 1831.
    48
    Three other interesting names appear in sequence in the
    Q&H statute, Andrew Belcher, George Rundell, James
    Bridge. I suspect that elTors were made in transcribing the
    second and tbird names and that these two were London
    goldsmiths, Edmund Rundell and John Bridge. Andrew
    Belcher, another Nova Scotian, had business ties to Cunard
    and in 1829 was Nova Scotias Agent in London. At this
    time
    Belcher was also on the Board of the General Mining
    Association where Rundell and Bridge were the dominant
    shareholders; (see General Mining Association Deed of
    Settlement, 1829, Guildhall Archives, London, ms 24, 532).
    In
    the late 1830s, following its initial involvement with
    tramways referred to in footnote 24, this company would
    build the Albion Mines Railway, the second locomotive­
    powered railway in Blitish North AmeIica; (see my paper on
    this
    line in Canadian Rail, # 474, January-February, 2000,
    3-12).
    49 JHALC, vol. 40 (1831) 55; Montreal Gazelle, 4 November
    1830.
    50 See PSLC, 2 Will. IV, ch. 58, 1832; the 74 founders
    who were named were collectively authorized to establish
    the company and build the line. At the time of incorporation,
    no shares had been issued and it
    is not certain if all members
    of the group of 74 actually took shares when the company
    was formally set up in late 1834. The most readily available
    copy
    of the list is that in Mika, (1985) 16. It also appears in
    the preamble quoted on page 48
    of this article.
    51 Montreal
    Gazette, 6 October 1831.
    52 Montreal Gazette, 26 May 1831.
    RAIL CANADIEN -493
    FORM EX 21-3,6
    RAILWAY CENTENARY
    CELEBRATiON JULY, 19, 1936
    To LAPRAIRIE, Que.
    AND RETURN
    AGENTS STUB I H~ IF
    j NOT ~OOD FOR PASSAGE ! PUNCHED
    ~ CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAYS)! g
    ~ RAILWAY CENTENARY ~
    b CELEBRATION at LAPRAIRIE, Quo In
    ~~_ JULY 19, 1936 ::r
    HAlF FARE IF PUNCIIED HERE * -~
    GOOD FOR ONE PASSAGE VI
    LAPRAIRIE, Quo. IV>
    TO ,.,
    t~ ~(-.~~~,~~E~~~,~~i~T~~-~lcr g
    ~ MOXJ)
    ,JlII1 lOlli, ItJ&u :u
    _. RETURN COUPO~ ___ .I ~
    IN~~o~:A~f~:!:~~ ~ Z
    Canadas first steam train
    A Century of Achievement
    On July 21, 1836~ Canadas fint steam trilin
    . was ope:rated between Laprilirie and St. John!i
    Que., over the Chilmplain and ·St. LawrencQ:
    Railway-Ihe first sixteen~mile link in the
    chc,jn of railways which now constitute the.
    Canadian National System, compdsing 24,000
    miles 01 line-.
    Thus, tile Canadian National Railways enters
    its second century this-YCilr-iospire~ by the
    traditioos of the past hundred years-·with a
    trained pusonn<;1 ready and anxious to se-lve,
    and with the advantage of mOSt modern
    facilities and equipment.
    Canadian National Railways
    Cb.nb.d~1 first sheumlin~d locomotly~-
    Ih~ Ia;gesl 1tfcmlin~d JocomoHf~ in the wodd.
    You all! invited 1o rdilJn thli coupon o!I! 01 yOIt( ;ouflley on the Clnadian N{!tlon~J Railways
    ,n the SY11em ontus ils secolld c!nlulY 01 s~lvlce.
    C;,lLl: 1l:}.I!;())
    58
    ~——.—-~,
    Le premier train a v~peur au ·.Canada
    1836-1936
    Un 5iede de Progres
    Le 21 juillet 183.6, Ie premi~r· train ~ v1!lp~ur
    au Canada fit 103 cours.e Laprairie.-St-Jeo3n, OUI2-.,
    Sur les ro!lrls .du Champlain & Sf. Lawrence
    Rid!way, ccst-a-dire sur II1:S pr~mlels seizQ:
    milles de voies du reseau qui sappelle aujou{.
    dhui Ie Canadien Naiiona! et rayoone sur
    24,000 mUles de terrltoire canadien.
    ee R~seau Canadien N~tional entre done
    ceUe annel1: dMs son 5~cond siecie dexist~ncl1:,
    fort de 103 tradition quil a etablie, riche de
    !experi~nce acqulse
    j
    fler dun per~onnel aussl
    habile que r.efe, et equlpe a 103 moderne.
    Reseau Canadien National
    1/6400–1 r~mr~(l locomotivl!
    canadienl1e
    ;. JI9n~ fllyantes;
    VOU~ POl 911!ftr ce COli Jon cn IO(lI~nif de vohe
    OY!!! !~! It nfIU.lJ C1!II:loi !tttl On plcmier ccnlenJlh::.
    (~;E7. 01Hf!R 510e)
    EMIS.PAR
    RESEAU c/NADIEN NATIONAL
    In 1936 the centennial of the opening of the Champlain & St. Lawrence
    was celebrated by
    Canadian National Railways, the successor to the
    C&StL. These tickets were
    for special trips as part of the celebrations;
    St. Lambert and St, Johns on July 18, and Laprairie 011 July 19.
    Collection of Donald F. Angus.
    MARS-AVRIL 2003
    53 Montreal Gazette, 20 December 1834,
    54
    Montreal Gazette, 1 October 1829.
    55 Montreal Gazette, 5 March 1835,
    56 Montreal Gazette, 13 December and 30
    December 1830; Brockville, on the upper St.
    Lawrence, offered rapid-free navigation into Lake
    Ontario.
    57 Montreal Gazette, 13 December 1830,
    58
    Stanstead is about 50 miles east of St. Johns and
    very close to the American border.
    59 See the letter by Columbus in Quebec City
    Mercury,
    30 January 1830.
    60
    A Chambly -Longueuil canal was also being
    promoted at this time; again no details have been
    found to identify the principals involved; JHALC,
    vol.
    40 (1831) 97,
    61 Montreal Gazette, 22 September 183l.
    62 Montreal Gazette, 6 October, 11 October, 13
    October, 20 October, 22 October, 1 November, and
    5 November 183l.
    63 The all-too-brief summary of committee hearings
    indicates that the
    C&SL group ·was still uncertain
    or non-committal about the use
    of locomotive power.
    Oliver Wait was asked about the use
    of locomotives
    and his recorded reply was a terse, We have not
    exactly determined. JHALC, vol. 41 (1831-32)
    Appendix Volume, Evidence, 26 December 183l.
    Discussion in the Assembly on 20 January 1832,
    reported in the Quebec City Mercury, 4 February
    1832, shows that no commitments had been made
    by the promoters about a precise route or a nOithern
    terminus for the line .
    64 JHALC, vol 41 (1831-32) 196.
    65 Despite the lack of answers to numerous
    questions about the promoters plans, the support
    of Papineau, Speaker of the Assembly and
    undisputed leader of the patriote group, assured
    passage of the bill this time; see Quebec City
    Mercury, 4 February 1832, regarding Papineaus
    statements on 21 and 23 January. References to
    Papineau such
    as that by Brown (1936, 29) as a
    strong supporter
    of the C&SL project fail to take
    into account the fact that his support had not been
    forthcoming during the first two attempts at
    incorporation, No explanation can be offered about
    why Papineaus support was won over the third time
    around.
    66 Montreal Gazette, 3 April 1828, There has been
    some discussion about the spelling
    of Peirces name,
    All references I have seen in the press and in
    Legislative Journals, 1828-36, have been to
    Pierce, however it appears that he himself spelled
    his name Peirce, including on his tombstone, so
    MARCH -APRIL 2003 59 CANADIAN RAIL -493
    PROGRAMME

    The PresiJenl ilnd Members of Council
    of the SATURDAY. JULY 18TH. 1936
    rrlllltolll, Iollor ilf tltr Ull:lpJlIlL ~r
    M
    – ~~ !
    2.20 Openin, 0 ulclH«l;on on emu.! of train from Jltiiqlnlri.m ,l~ ~u,i.,l1lic ~cicl~ of JlHontrul
    MODllul.
    I , ~. e;.?t. ….
    2.30 Proccuion in motol (JIll Around Pflft of the City to fequ~1 the hc.~ of the company of
    – (–.~~~-;-~~~ .;,.
    MODU01col ute on Rivcrlide Drive.
    2.40 Welcome by Mayor C. f. Alicrum.
    ; ill U,tuub,..,Unn j,e I~ OUt ~ttl1l!.rri:l1rrClnllitrlIDi:~ ti( lilt roPIIh1D
    rof tI!l QlI!3tl41hlI Dub 61. li~IIHTnrr Ittllrroai). Ill!. wlllll, UIM
    rxltui lllt 5t. lin.~tt1 ill UI5~ •. ~M t1!t nlnnllh.o-.. r • t.!fllllie-
    2.50 Shon addttu by Pre.ident S, J. Hunlcrlord of the
    un.diaD National Rly. lod unvc:LIint: of T ablel
    by udy M.yoreu.
    3.00 ShOll addrcu by Pre.idenl John Lore of the Can ••
    dia(l Railro.d Hu.oric.al Au«Labon.
    ftlbLtt IItI tUrtrn::t~ flrI6. hi far 1,,111 an
    3.05 Shott addreu in Freud! by Alderman L A. A.
    CHATEAU DE RAMEZAY. MONTREAL Guoux.
    Saturl)tly.lfnIU 181~. 1!J3li
    llO Short addreu by the Fedeul M~ber. Vinc.eD1
    Dupuit. K.c.. M.P. TUESDAY, JULY 21 .1936. AT 8,3:) OCLOCK P. M.
    11; .. (O;I~,I ~,illu 10( to qnu OCl.vdjor CIt.I …
    . S~ pt~: Oft INch.
    Rduru 10 Stalioo by way 01 Victoria Avenue.
    ABOVE LEFT AND CENTRE: The invitation and program for the celebrations by the City of St. Lambert on July 18, 1936.
    ABOVE RIGHT: An exhibition was held in the Chateau de Ramezay in Montreal, commemorating the centennial of the C&StL.
    This exhibition was the first major undertaking by the CRHA.
    Both items from the collection
    of Donald F Angus.
    we have used that spelling. This question could be answered
    definitively
    by the evidence of original documents bearing
    his signature.
    67 PSLC, 6 Geo
    IV, ch. 29, 1826.
    68 Montreal
    Gazette, 24 September 1829.
    69 Montreal
    Gazette, 21 September 1829.
    70
    A. Shortt, George Moffatt, JCB, 32 (1924-25) 179.
    71 Lindsays initial title was clerk, see Montreal Gazette,
    4 December 1834, but references to his activity by the time
    construction was under way in 1835-36 clearly indicate his
    role was that
    of general manager.
    n Jv10ntreal Gaiette, 2 April 1832; the others were Peirce,
    Wait, Forbes, BoutheJier,
    Joh-n Mills and Frederick Griffin.
    Griffin was a prominent Montreal lawyer
    andMiIls was on
    the
    City Bank Board with Phillips, John Molson Jr, and
    Andrew White.
    73 Montreal
    Gazette, 4 December 1834.
    74 Denison, vol. 1 (1966) 297,
    75 Denison, vol. 1 (1966) 292.
    76 Montreal
    Gazette, 2 April and 17 May 1832.
    77 Montreal
    Gazette, 15 February 1834.
    78 Montreal
    Gazette, 22 October 1833 and 18 September
    1834.
    79 Nelsons status
    as a member of the Montreal establishment
    collapsed when he joined the patriote cause. After the
    outbreak of the 1837 rebellion, he became a key figure in
    the leadership and one of the most prominent exiles of 1838;
    Nelsons brother, Wolfred, led the force which won the only
    patriote military victory at the Battle
    of St Denis.
    80 Montreal
    Gazette, 18 July and 12 November 1835, 16
    July and 20 September 1836, No explanation can be offered
    for the failure
    of the Brockville project to gain Assembly
    approval though one obvious possibility is that the line
    would have provided competition to the goverrunent-owned
    Lachine
    canaL It would be over a decade before the Montreal
    & Lachine laid the first rails along the easternmost part
    of
    the proposed route to Brockville.
    81 Tulchinsky (1977) 52-53.
    82 An interesting sidebar to these connections is the fact
    that Horatio Gates & Co appears to have had only one facility
    outside Montreal -a warehouse in Brockville; see Montreal
    Gazette, 26 May 1831 and 13 June 1831.
    83 Montreal
    Vindicator, 2 October 1835; nothing has been
    found to indicate
    if there were any connections between this
    project and the St. Johns -Stanstead line being promoted in
    1830.
    84 These were extended in 1833
    by an amendment (PSLC,
    3 Will
    IV, ch.7, 1833) which gave the promoters to 1 December
    1834 to complete survey work, raise capital and formally
    .organize
    the company. The railway itself was to be completed
    by August of 1837.
    85
    F.e. Gamst, Early American Railways (Stanford, 1997),
    table 2.31, 282-83, (with correction of von Gerstners
    inaccurate 1832 date for the opening of the M&H).
    86 See Montreal
    Gazette, 12 April, 15 April, and 17 April
    1834 for obituaries
    of Gates; see also Obituary notices of
    the late Hon. Horatio Gates, (Montreal, 1834), CIHM
    microfiche series, # 89116.
    87 The Montreal
    Gazette, 18 November 1834, reported that
    more than 500
    of the 1000 authorized shares were subscribed
    for; all remaining shares were placed during 1835-36.
    88
    Mika (1985) 21, Cinq-Mars (1986) 91, and Gillam
    (c.1986) 12, all credit Peirce with convincing John Molson
    Sr to take 20 per cent
    of the shares. This seems to have fUst
    appeared in G.R. Stevens, Canadian National Railways, vol.
    1 (Toronto, 1960) 26. Stevens cites Brown (1936) as his
    source regarding the C&SL and offers no other
    documentation regarding Molsons decision. Brown,
    however, had not linked Peirce to Molsons
    investment
    decision, As a result, the alleged Peirce-Molson connection
    appears questionable.
    89 Montreal
    Gazette, 4 December 1834, provides a detailed
    account
    of this meeting with extensive attention to Peirce,
    Jones and the completion
    of the survey. The importance of
    the survey was noted again at the C&SL annual meeting at
    the end
    of 1835; see Montreal Gazette, 17 December 1835.
    RAIL CANADIEN -493 60 MARS-AVRIL 2003
    Two Days and Two Seasons
    from VIA Rails
    Lake Superior
    by Daryl Adair
    i:;·-:··
    .. ; ,.
    ;},;
    An excited group watches the Lake Superior pull alongside the Sudbury station.
    One of Canadas last Rail Diesel Car services, VIA
    Rail Canadas
    Lake Superior works on the Canadian Pacific
    main line between Sudbury, and White River, on a Lri-weekly
    schedule, in almost anonymity. Rail Travel Tours organized
    the first fall colours tour in the fall
    of 2002 and a group
    from Southern Ontario travelled round trip from Toronto on
    one of Canadas most well know trains, the Canadian, to
    Capreol and transferred to Sudbury, Ontario to spend a
    couple of evenings, followed by two days travelling between
    Sudbury and White River, Ontario on the Lake Superior.
    Our group experienced a great Canadian rail expelience with
    some unique weather, which all made for a memorable trip.
    SATURDAY
    OCTOBER 5, 2002
    In the hotel lobby of SudburyS Quality Inn, a favorite
    of railfans as the hotel overlooks the Canadian Pacific main
    line and Sudbury station/yards, everyone in the group was
    quite excited about travelling through the Canadian Shield
    on the last regularly scheduled passenger train on the
    Canadian Pacific Main line.
    The hotel shuttle transported a
    few members
    of the group to the former CPR, now VIA, station
    while
    the majority decided to walk the short distance to the
    depot. Once there a few noticed that the house tracks that the Toronto section
    of the Canadian arrived and were stored
    on, when the train ran on the CPR line have been removed.
    Since 1955, prior
    to the schedule rationalization of 1990,
    the
    Montreal and Toronto sections met and departed here
    for their respective journeys. Today this unique piece of
    Canadian rail history is a fading memory but the majestic
    brick Sudbury station, at mile
    79 of the Cartier sub remains.
    Inside the group enjoyed the stations large waiting
    room
    (if only it could tell stories) talking with staff and
    fellow travellers and stretched
    their legs on the platform
    enjoying the morning sun. It was here the group had the
    pleasure of meeting the trains conductor Mr. James
    Cockburn who introduced himself to the group and told
    them there would be a delay in departing today.
    Our train
    was in the yard but not ready to go as the three cars that
    made up the train this day, we would find out later, were
    marshaled incorrectly. The baggage car RDC 4
    #6250 was
    located in the
    middle of the two passenger units and the
    crew was switching the units to put the RDC 4 baggage car
    (one
    of only 14 built) at the end of the train. With the
    procedure done the consist with 6215 in the lead, followed
    by 6205 and 6250 pulled in front of the station. This is the
    first time since the Budd cars recent overhaul in Moncton,
    MARCH -APRIL 2003 61 CANADIAN RAIL -493
    The Lake Superior at Devon Siding.
    New Brunswick that all three have travelled together. The
    overhaul has seen a considerable amount of work done on
    their
    electrical systems and in the cars interiors that now
    feature new seats and a light blue interior, replacing the former
    VIA red coloured interior. According to Mr.
    Cockburn the
    cars are a breath
    of fresh air and have been well received
    by all the passengers who regularly ride the train. The group
    is quick to find their seats in the lead car and all that was left
    was for Mr. Cockburn
    to yell All Aboard and we were on
    our way moving west through Sudbury.
    The train travelled through the unique landscape of
    the Sudbury basin, believed to be the site of a meteorite
    crash millions of years ago, producing the areas prized
    nickel and copper. As we were hunting fall colours we did
    not realize that this was the first Saturday
    of moose hunting
    season and many hunters, with all their gear, loaded
    up on
    the
    train in Azilda. The route of the train services many
    isolated communities and hunting shacks and the hunters
    were in full force today. A westbound freight train saw us
    take the siding in Levack and once on our way we quickly
    arrived at the end of the Subdivision in Cartier, Ontario.
    Located here is another historic station still used today for
    the
    purpose it was built for, CPR offices and a passenger
    waiting room. We loaded up more hunters and our conductor
    Mr.
    Cockburn received the lineup of trains and this was
    indeed to be a busy day on the rails.
    WhiJe the fall colours were not
    in full force the scenery
    did
    not fail to disappoint as the train passed the Spanish
    River Valley, which is popular with canoeists in the summer
    months. Stopping at a number
    of hunting cabins we put our
    schedules away as we were not going to need them for this
    journey. We also stopped at the community of Biscotasing
    that once was the home of famed naturalist Grey Owl,
    believed to be an aboriginal who after his death was found
    out to be Englishman Archibald Stanfield Belaney! It was
    also the home
    of Allan Crossley who grew up here and was
    on the tour. Even though we were
    just here long enough to
    take on passengers Mr.
    Cockburn made sure Mr.Crossley
    had a chance to stand on the platform opposite the station
    shelter for a brief homecoming. After a picture we load up
    and are on our way, not before noticing the station shelter
    is
    the same beige colour of the Biscotasing General Store,
    located right next to the shelter. One wonders if an energetic
    painting team did the
    job of painting the shelter with left
    over paint.
    We start making good time as the Budd cars move
    swiftly through northern
    Ontario when we are put into the
    siding
    at Devon, at mile 130, to await an eastbound train.
    Nobody seems
    to mind as one of the engineers and baggage
    man has come back
    to mingle with the group and talk about
    their
    job and explain what it is like to drive the Budd cars
    and work for the Canadian Pacific Railway. As well, the tracks
    divide Loon Lake and there are picturesque scenes to both
    the north and to the south.
    After a short delay, the freight
    train moving at track speed roars past our train and we receive
    permission to
    continue with Chapleau, and the end of the
    Cartier sub only a few miles away.
    In Chapleau the train makes a stop at a refueling stand
    before moving ahead to the modern station building in this
    northern community. While the early station is long
    gone
    there is still a monument to the CPR in this community that
    owes its existence to the railway. During
    our extended stop
    RAIL CANADIEN -493 62 MARS-AVRIL 2003
    for our group consisting of three
    different types
    of chicken, lasagna,
    scalloped potatoes, salads, greens
    and an
    almost endless amount of
    desert items. Keys to the
    Continental Motel are distributed
    among the group and many, after
    thanking the ladies
    of the seniors
    club for the wonderful dinner, walk
    to the
    hotel while others are
    shuttled by local people to the hotel
    to collapse in bed after an exciting
    but long day on the rails.
    SUNDAY
    OCTOBER 5, 2002
    CPR/VIA Conductor James Cockburn talks to the group about the route.
    The next morning, there is no
    rush for breakfast at the Continental
    Motel restaurant on this lazy
    Sunday morning as there is a
    temporary schedule change due to
    track maintenance and the train
    is
    not scheduled to depart until noon.
    This gi ves us ample time to visit
    everyone has time to stretch their legs
    in Centennial Park,
    adjacent to the station, to view preserved CPR Steam
    locomotive No. 5433. Once this is done there are a few
    moments
    to visit the Loeb Grocery store or visit the Chapleau
    museum before boarding the train and taking a head count
    before departing.
    Once on our way, on the White
    River Subdivision,
    we ·cross. the
    Chapleau River· and the .. CPR mai nline now
    makes
    up the southern border of the Chapleauctown Game
    Re~erve. We also team we have a new conductor and engine
    crew, but
    Mr. Cockburn has stayed with us to be our guide
    and point out route highlights. The scenery continues with
    views
    of Lake Windermere and Dog Lake and sharp eyes
    watching the low swampy areas for more moose. Before the
    sun sets for the day the train slows for the diamond
    of the
    Algoma Central at Franz and everyone can see the few
    buildings left of this railway community across Hobon Lake.
    The concrete base for the CPR water tower still remains and
    can be quickly seen on the north side of the tracks before
    approaching the ACR. Near the tracks we are greeted by a
    green board and we cross the north south tracks
    of the Route
    of the Black Bear and member of the group, local author
    Dale Wilson tells the group about the once vibrant community
    of Franz and its railway history. Shortly after our visit to
    Franz with the sun gone all we can see outside our windows
    is a trickle of rain as we make good time, and surprisingly
    meet
    no more freight trains as we continue on to White River.
    After a time, with Mr. Cockburn keeping everyone
    enteltained with stories about the stretch
    of track (especially
    the odd occurrences
    at mile 107) we are traveling on, lights
    can be seen outside our windows again and the train
    approaches White Rivers unique two-story brick station.
    The rain has stopped and on hand to meet
    us is the Mayor of
    White River Angelo Bazzoni, he welcomes our group before
    we walk to the White River Seniors Harmony Club centre.
    Here the seniors of this club have prepared a fantastic supper
    the White River Museum, which was planned for the
    evening before. Volunteers here told us more about the areas
    rail history and
    learn more about the communitys most
    famous former resident; Winnie the Pooh.
    It was here that
    Captain Harry Cole bourn while traveling on the CPR from
    his hometown
    of Winnipeg to Valcartier, Quebec and from
    there
    to the battlefields of World War I purchased a bear cub
    that became famous in A.A.
    Milnes children stories. The
    orphaned bear
    was. purchased while he stretched his leg along
    the platfonll here in White River and the same·platform today
    found our group loading up and awaiting our noon departure.
    The warm interior of the train is welcoming as the
    group dries off inside the cars. A few brave ones put on rail
    gear to capture some unique photos
    of our train in the rain
    next to White
    Rivers two story brick station and are not
    upset
    at the results. Once underway we learned that the track
    was washed out just west
    of here and a load of ballast cars,
    among a number
    of halted westbound freights, was in the
    yard
    to help to get the line re-opened. A safe guess would be
    that we will have
    no freight meetings on this section of track.
    Not long after departing White River, which
    is known
    for once recording minus
    72 degrees Fahrenheit, the rain
    turns to heavy snow.
    Everyone on the tour is enjoying it
    thoroughly, especially the photographers,
    as they get great
    pictures where the tracks cross the White River. The snow
    continues and the crew explains that, while the train never
    passes the great lake to the south it
    is named for, the same
    lake definitely has an effect on the areas weather patterns.
    With nothing but green boards in front
    of us the train
    makes
    great time, stopping along the way at some very
    isolated camps to pick up some very disappointed, and
    soaked
    to the bone, moose hunters. We do stop in Esher, just
    west
    of Chapleau for a westbound freight that we were told
    would be diverted onto the Algoma Central and transfer to
    the
    CN main line to continue west. Our journey east
    continues with much of the same scenery experienced the
    MARCH -APRIL 2003
    day before, although,
    everyone has switched sides
    for a different perspective.
    63 CANADIAN RAIL -493
    After the sun goes
    down there is a surprise. We
    know that Michael and Jan
    Gauthier are taking the trip
    to
    celebrate a one year
    wedding aooi versary and a
    cake
    is sneaked on board the
    train at Chapleau. After a few
    words from the happy couple
    everyone on the train enjoys
    the
    cake and we arrive at
    Sudbury a while later. The
    rain wont dampen our spirits
    as the Quality Hotel shuttle
    is ready, with a few cabs, to
    transfer everyone to the
    hotel. Some brave souls still
    walk and
    all are glad to climb
    into the beds
    of the rooms of
    the Quality Hotel Sudbury.
    If they did stay up looking
    out
    of their windows facing .
    the yard they would . see the
    White River station and the Lake Superior in the rain.
    Budd cars quietly depart the station to transfer to the NRE
    Aleo Loco Company
    of Capreol where they are stored and
    maintained.
    The following day the group enjoyed a visit to the
    Northern Ontario Railroad M.useum in Capreol and was
    shown every corner
    of this community railway museum by
    some great volunteers. Before long the southbound
    Canadian arrived in tapre01 and the, group· boarded for the
    return day trip to Toronto ending an enjoyable fall colours
    journey
    to Northern Ontario. Building on last years success,
    tills tour, which begins and ends
    in Toronto, has been arranged
    again for Thursday October 2 to Monday October 6, 2003.
    For further details or reservations on this tour willIe space is
    still available, contact Rail Travel Tours at 1-866-704-3528.
    Eastbound Lake Superior in the snow.
    RAIL CANADIEN -493 64 MARS-AVRIL 2003
    Making tracks
    Rail travel promoter opens door to North
    by Bill Redekop
    The Hudson Bay at The Pas the evening of July 20, 2001. Photo by Fred Angus
    JOE BRYSKA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Riding the
    rails on the Hudson Bay Line. Tour operators have blinders
    on when they see Churchill
    in the North and thats it, says
    rail fanatic Daryl Adair.
    ON THE HUDSON
    BAYLINE-Maggi¢shusband
    died last year, she said as the scenery stroked by her rail car
    window. So she sold off all the cattle from their ranch
    in New
    South Wales, Australia, and followed her wanderlust to see
    the world.
    In Canada, she purchased a Via Rail pass and found
    herself here, on the Hudson Bay Line
    to The Pas, she said as
    darkness fell and yard lights shone in the distance.
    Thats train travel. Its like a Eugene ONeil play where
    the set shrinks with each act to focus attention on the
    characters lives. Random conversations are struck, lives are
    revealed, confessions made.
    And you watch the fenceposts go by, and the mile
    marker
    s, and the bushes and trees ….
    Daryl Adair, who operates Rail Travel Tours, hopes to
    revive the mystery and allure
    of train travel. Adair, 31, is a
    rail fanatic. He got the bug from watching trains go by on
    the CPR main line at a family cottage
    in Lac Lu, near Minaki.
    In 1997-98, he travelled halfway round the world by
    train: from Winnipeg to Toronto, then around Europe,
    including Stockholm and Paris, then to Moscow, then to
    Bejing
    on the Trans-Siberian Line, and finally Hong Kong.
    Adair
    is banking that hes not the only one with a yen
    for train travel. I started the business last
    faJl when I had a
    Grey Cup train to Edmonton, like the Grey Cup Specials
    they had
    in the 1950s and 60s. It went over velY well, he said. He also ran a train special through northern Ontario
    called Superior Colours, a scenic tour
    of the fall colours
    along Lake Superior.
    Adairs latest venture is rail travel into Manitobas
    north on the Hudson Bay Line. He hopes to bridge north and
    south. Adair
    hosted a trip to The Pas for the 56th Trappers
    Festival, Feb. 13-17. He is also running a rail travel tour to
    Churchill
    in July to see the Beluga Whales, as well as other
    northern
    communities. Tour operators have blinders on
    where they see Churchill in the North, and thats it. I see
    more, so much more, said Adair.
    Heres this wonderful festival in the centre of
    Manitoba, The Pas Trappers Festival, which people come
    all the way from the NOlthwest Territories to see, and people
    in the south go, Whats the big deal? he said frustrated.
    The festival
    is the hiStOlY of the fur trade coming alive. And
    then theres the famous northern hospitality.
    The Hudson Bay Line starts in Winnipeg and bends
    northwest from Portage la Prairie up to Dauphin. Then its
    west through Roblin and into Saskatchewan, then north
    through memorable Saskatchewan town names like Mikado,
    Amsterdam, Tall Pines and Hudson Bay, and back into
    Manitoba to The Pas.
    The line continues to Churchill.
    I travelled
    in a sleeper, a comfortable cubicle full of
    stainless steel drawers and cabinets, and powder blue walls.
    There
    is an adjoining bathroom, and a three-panel mirror to
    see yourself in triptych. Theres a reading lamp over the bed,
    and a fan mounted on the wall, and three attendant buttons.
    The sleepers were originally built in the 1950s, and
    refurbished in the early 1990s.
    MARCH -APRIL 2003
    Travellers can have trouble sleeping the first night,
    mainly because
    theyre too excited. As the steel wheels push
    and pull
    against the steel rails, your thoughts venture to
    outside your window.
    You can lie on your elbow in the dark
    in your berth and just watch the world go by. Even at night,
    you can see a surprising amount outside.
    We left Thursday evening and arrived at about 9 a.m.
    Friday morning in
    The Pas. A pine coffin was being loaded
    onto a freight car as we
    got off. Someones last trip, an
    onlooker remarked.
    The
    Trappers Festival is not fully appreciated, said
    Adair. What separates it from some other winter festivals
    is .
    its
    authenticity. People come off the trap line for the
    competition, and then go right back out to the trap line after
    the festivals over, said Adair. The men are not so much from
    a time when men were men, but from a time when men were
    bears. These guys are tough.
    While watching the contestants carry 500 pounds
    of
    flour on their backs is amazing, its just as amazing to watch
    them make a fire, as
    if down to their last match, and boil
    some tea; or watching them immaculately filet a fish with
    frozen fingers and frosty breath. The King and Queen Trapper
    contests extend over two days. There are
    21 events for the
    men.
    Adairs enthusiasm for the festival
    is infectious. He
    strides around town with the biggest fur hat
    of aU. Its more.
    the size of the box the hat came in, and is reddish like a
    peach flambee.
    Our tour followed the dog races by bus, with an
    experienced
    musher providing the play-by-play.
    Then theres the museum. Most travellers would
    expect to see a typical pioneer museum, with a little timber
    kitchen table and log sidings and kerosene lamps and
    snowshoes hanging from a nail. But the Sam Waller Museum
    is
    much different. It should be named the Sam Wallers
    Northern Museum of Weird Stuff.
    Its not just the mounted two-headed calf, born near
    The Pas, or the albino Canada Goose. Its not even the
    collection
    of Mexican jumping beans, or the Mexican fleas
    dressed up
    in wedding gowns and tuxedos (you can see their
    little hairy feet poking out the sleeves).
    What takes the cake, and it
    isnt always on display, is
    the stuffed head of Tobey, the lead musher dog of Emile St.
    Goddard. Goddard won the Trappers Festival dog sled races
    five straight years in the late 1920s, a feat only matched this
    year by Kevin Cook. Then some cad put an end
    to his winning
    streak by poisoning his beloved Tobey. So Goddard, in
    honour
    of his memory, had him stuffed. We were allowed to
    go into storage to view the head. Waller collected everything.
    So besides the usual pioneer and trapper memorabilia, there
    are collections
    of stuffed parakeets, stuffed native song birds,
    Ukrainian eggs, pipes, belt buckles, barbed wire, African
    butterflies, much
    of it hidden in wedge drawers, and much,
    much more. The museum is
    in the old 1917 courthouse and
    still has the womens jail cells
    in the basement for viewing.
    Whoever said people are nicer farther north, got it
    right. Longtime trapper Walter Koshel drove me out
    of town
    to his home just
    to show me a stuffed wol verine and a 17 ,000-
    65 CANADIAN RAIL -493
    year-old buffalo skull, and other discoveries from his
    trapping career.
    One gets the impression Koshel would do the same
    for any tourist if it meant them going home with a favourable
    impression
    of The Pas.
    And town Mayor Gary Hopper scrounged up tickets
    so everyone on tour could see the Opaskwayak Cree Nation
    Blizzard hockey team win its 28th or 29th consecutive game;
    people seem to have lost count. The Blizzard are in the
    Manitoba Junior Hockey League. Their home games are an
    experience with their raucus fans, who are constantly blowing
    air horns and banging on side boards.
    At one game, American travel writers Yvette Cardozo
    and Bill Hirsch were welcomed over the public address
    system, and a referee stopped play to hand them two souvenir
    pucks. Blizzard tickets could be part
    of a future rail package,
    if theres interest, said Adair.
    Meanwhile, Maggie, who is a pensioner and wears a
    wide-brimmed Australian outback
    hat that holds back her
    long greying hair, went all the way to Churchill. We met up
    with her again on the way back. She loves the north, even
    though
    shes from balmy Australia. (Her ranch is on higher
    elevation and gets frost, she said.)
    She
    ~Iso loves Winnipeg. She stayed at.the lvy Hous~
    Hostel while in our city. Maggie was wearing a T-shirt that
    said
    The Ulysees tlub, and underneath . that was the motto:
    Grow Old Disgracefully. Its for motorcycle riders over 50
    years
    of age, she explained. Maggie is clearly a woman who
    does what she wants, not like Daisy Goodwill Flett in Carol
    Shields novel
    The Stone Diaries who does whats expected
    of her.
    Maggie planned to travel by rail all the way to the
    West Coast, then down through the United States, and be in
    South America
    by late summer.
    The Trappers Train
    (3 days and 4 nights)
    When: Thursday, Feb.
    12,2004 to Monday, Feb. 16, 2004.
    Cost: From $1,095 (Cdn) or $745 US, per person for double
    compartment.
    How far: 930 miles
    What: Travel the Hudson Bay
    Line to The Pas Trappers
    Festival. King and Queen Trapper competitions. Dog sled
    races. The Sam Waller Museum. The Annual Mushers
    Banquet. Aseneskak Casino.
    The Northern Manitoba Explorer
    (9 days and 8 nights)
    When: Sunday July 13, 2003 to Monday July 21, 2003.
    Cost: Per person on double occupancy: $1,745 CDN.
    How far: 1,784 miles
    What: Travel the Hudson Bay Line to Churchill to see the
    Beluga Whales. Later stops
    in Gillam to see Kettle Dam, and
    Thompson, Lynn Lake, and The Pas.
    Who: Rail Travel Tours 1-204-897-9551; Toll free: 1-866-
    704-3528; Web: railtraveltours.com
    RAIL CANADIEN -493 66 MARS-AVRIL 2003
    Electric Trains to Rawdon
    by Glenn F. Cartwright
    At a time when there has not been regular passenger
    service
    to Rawdon, Quebec since the 1950s, it seems hard to
    imagine that the village was once served from Montreal by
    an electric train. In 1924, Canadian National Railways took
    possession of six new storage battery cars (numbered 15794-
    15799) ordered from the International Equipment Company
    of Montreal, agents for the Railway Storage Battery Car
    Company, and built at Canadian Car & Foundry, Montreal
    (cf. Clegg, 1962). Each weighed some 30 tons and was similar
    to number 15796 pictured here. Sister car 15795 was received
    April 30th 1925 and was assigned
    to the Montreal-Rawdon
    route. The car, designated class ES-53A, had
    an Edison (250
    cell) motor, was 53
    2 long, weighed 73,800 pounds, and
    seated 50 passengers. The car was built on a steel underframe
    with steel superstructure, with a wooden roof covered with
    canvas embedded in white lead (Canadian Railway and
    Marine World, January, 1924,
    p. 19). Though powered by
    storage battery, it was heated
    by a coal stove.
    In those days, the car would leave St. Catherine Street
    East (Moreau Street) Station on the I Assomption
    Subdivision (Montreal Division, Quebec District) and stop
    at Maisonneuve and Pointe-au
    x-Trembles before Illmbling
    off .the eastern end
    of Montreal island over the bridge to
    Charlemagne. After I Assomption, the car would
    tum onto
    the Rawdon Subdi vision. for the remainder
    of the trip to
    Rawdon, a total trip
    distance of 4l.2 miles. Though the
    assignment
    of this single car to the route suggests a pattern
    of light passenger traffic, the car made two round trips a day,
    leaving Montreal at 7 am with the last return trip from
    Rawdon at 5 pm. On Sundays between June 15th and
    September 7th, the service was supplemented by a
    conventional
    steam train (Canadian Railway and Marine
    World, June, 1924). Battery power had its limitations: one
    was the restriction of range, another the problem
    of operating
    through heavy snow, and another the 7
    to 8 hours to recharge
    the batteries fully though this could
    be spread over two or
    three shorter charges in a 24-hour period.
    It is not known if
    the cars storage batteries were recharged
    in Rawdon but this
    was probably unlikely.
    The car was equipped for double­
    ended operation obviating the need for turning the car on
    the Armstrong turntable at Rawdon. Neither end
    of the car
    appears
    to have had windshield wipers.
    Few photographs are available
    of the operations at
    Rawdon but one that has often been reproduced (cf. Brady,
    1987) shows a
    single car at the quaint Rawdon station.
    Thougb the photographer and date
    of the photo are unknown,
    it is
    now possible to interpret the picture in the light of
    Rawdons electric car. Since only one car was assigned to
    Rawdon, commencing in May 1924 and terminating by
    September
    of that year (Canadian Railway and Marine World, June, 1924, p.
    51l), it is likely that the photograph was
    taken during that period and that the car pictured is indeed
    15795. It is supposed that either the inauguration or
    termination of the service might have been an occasion for a
    photograph, with the inauguration being more likely. Thus,
    the photograph may be tentatively dated May 1924. [The
    editor apologizes for the poor quality
    of the photograph,
    but it was the only one available, and is better than
    no photo
    at
    am.
    The cost of running the battery cars was of some
    interest to the members of the Commons Committee on
    Government Railways and was estimated to be
    approximately 40 cents a mile according to Mr. S. J.
    Hungerford,Vice President, Operation and Construction
    Departments. This compared favourably with the
    cost of
    running gasoline cars at between 30 and 50 cents a mile,
    including depreciation. Compared with the capital cost
    of
    diesel cars, the battery cars cost slightly less.
    Another sister car, 15794, shown here in 1941 after
    conversion to gas-electric propulsion, is pictured here at
    Calumet Beach, Quebec.
    Rawdons electric car 15795 was replaced
    by gasoline
    motor car 15816 which made twice daily trips (except
    Sunday) and once on Sunday until it was withdrawn on July
    14, 1925 (Canadian Railway and Marine World July, 1925,
    p.335). By
    June 1926 the Rawdon car is shown on the
    Blackrock-Bridgeburg, Ontario route
    (Canadian Railway
    and Marine World, June, 1926, p.288)
    where it made 10
    roundtrips a day (12 on Saturday and some on Sunday) on
    the 0.8 mile line.
    By December 31st, 1938 it was listed as a
    spare kept in Toronto. The car was retired
    in October 1939
    and converted
    to Trailer 15770 in 1940. Rawdons electric
    train was
    no more.
    ABOVE: Photo of what is likely 15795 at Rawdon in 1924.
    OPPOSITE LEFT-A builders photo
    of15796 in May, 1924.
    CRHA Archives, Can-Car Collection,
    photo No. C-1866.
    OPPOSTIE RIGHT-15794 at Calumet. Beach, Que. in 1941.
    CRHA Archives.
    MARCH -APRIL 2003 67 CANADIAN RAIL -493
    References
    Brady, G. (1987). Rawdon: A Human Mosaic. Louiseville,
    Qc: Imprimerie Gagne, Ltee
    Canadian Railway and Marine World (January, 1924).
    Self
    Propelled Cars on Steam Railways. P. 19.
    Canadian Railway and Marine World (June, 1924). Self
    Propelled Cars on Steam Railways.
    Canadian Railway and Marine World (June, 1925). Self
    Propelled Cars on Steam Railways. P. 280b.
    Canadian Railway and Marine World (July, 1925). Self
    Propelled Cars on Steam Railways. P. 335.
    Canadian Railway and Marine World (June, 1926). Self
    Propelled Cars on Steam Railways. P.288.
    Clegg,
    A. (1962). Self-Propelled Cars of the CNR. Montreal:
    Canadian Railroad Historical Association.
    RAILCANADIEN -493 68 MARS-AVRIL 2003
    Canadian National Railways. Assignments of
    Self-Propelled Cars, May 2, 1926
    From Canadian Railway and Marine World, June 1926
    Effective with the May 2, 1926 change of time, the
    C.N.R.s gasoline, gas-electric, storage battery and oil electric
    self propelled cars were assigned
    to run as follows:
    Battery car 15,792 between Bathurst and
    Campbellton, on Bathurst Subdivision, Campbellton
    Division, Atlantic Region, 62.97 miles, as trains 329 and
    330.
    Battery car 15,793 between New Glasgow
    and Pictou,
    on Mulgrave and Pictou subdivision, New Glasgow Division,
    Atlantic Region, 12.24 miles, as trains 264, 265, 266 and
    267.
    Battery car 15,795 between Bridgeburg and
    Black
    Rock, Dunnville Subdivision, Stratford Division,
    Southwestern Ontario District, Central Region, 0.86 mile.
    Battery car 15,796 between Kitchener and Elmira,
    Waterloo
    Subdivision, Stratford Division, Southwestern
    Ontario District, Central Region, 11.73 miles, as trains 623,
    625, 627, 629, 631, 372, 374, 376, 378 and 380.
    Battery car 15,798 between Lunenburg and Mahone
    Bay, on Lunenburg Subdivision, Halifax Division, Atlantic
    Region, 7 miles, giving all passenger service.
    Battery car 15,799 between Fredericton and St.
    JQhn,
    on Centreville Subdivision, Edmundston Division, Atlantic
    Region, 83.16 miles,
    as trains 53 and 54.
    Battery car 15,800 between Winnipeg and Transcona,
    Winnipeg Terminal Division, Manitoba District, Western
    Region, 7.1 miles, giving all local passenger service.
    Battery car 15,801 between Toronto and Beaverton,
    Bala Subdivision, Nipissing Division, Northern Ontario
    District, and Toronto Terminals Division, Southwestern
    Ontario District, Central Region, 64.3 miles, as trains 315
    and 316.
    Battery car 15,802 between Halifax and Windsor Jct.,
    on Bedford Subdivision, Halifax Division, Atlantic Region,
    15.87 miles,
    as trains 173-178 inclusive.
    Battery car
    15,804 between Toronto and Weston,
    Brampton Subdivision, Stratford Division. Southwestern
    Ontario District, and Toronto Terminals Division,
    Southwestern Ontario District, Central Region, 8.41 miles,
    giving all local passenger service. Also between Toronto
    and Oakville, Oakville Subdivision, London Division, and
    Toronto Terminals Division, Southwestern Ontario District,
    Central Region, 21.14 miles, as trains 619 and 620.
    Gasoline electric car 15,805 between Port Huron and
    Jackson, Mich., Mount Clemens and Jackson Subdivisions,
    Chicago Division, Grand Trunk Western Lines, 125.39 miles,
    as trains 46 and 47. Gasoline car 15,811 between Cross Creek and Stanley,
    on Nashwaak and Stanley Subdivisions, Edmundston
    Division, Atlantic Region, 5.73 miles, giving all passenger
    service.
    Gasoline car 15,812 between Victoria, Cowichan Lake
    and Youbou, Cowichan Subdivision, Vancouver Island Lines,
    Western Region,
    83 miles, as trains 351, 352, 355 and 356.
    Gasoline car 15,813 between Victoria, Cowichan Lake
    and Youbou, Cowichan Subdivision, Vancouver Island Lines,
    Western Region,
    83 miles, as trains 351, 352, 355 and 356.
    Gasoline car 15,814 between Picton, Trenton and
    Trenton Jet., on Picton Subdivision, Ottawa Division,
    Northern Ontario District, Central Region, 30.6 miles, as
    trains 301, 304, 305 308, 309 and 310.
    Gasoline car 15,816 between Parry Sound and
    Capreol, Sudbury Subdivision, Capreol Division, Northern
    Ontario District, Central Region, 127 miles, as trains 317
    and 318.
    Articulated oil electric car 15,817 between Palmerston
    and
    Southampton, Southampton Subdivision, Stratford
    Division, Southwestern Ontario District, Central Region,
    58.94 miles, giving all passenger service. Also b.etween
    Palmers ton and Guelph, Southampton Subdivision, Stratford
    Division, Southwestern Ontario District,
    Central Region,
    42.58 miles,
    as trains 652 and 653.
    Articulated oil electric car 15,818 between Palmerston
    and Kincardine, Newton and Kincardine Subdivisions,
    Stratford Division, Southwestern Ontario District, Central
    Region, 75.37 miles, giving all passenger service.
    60 ft. oil electric car 15,819 between Hamilton,
    Brantford, Guelph and Fergus, on Dundas, Southampton and
    Harrisburg Subdivisions, Stratford and London Divisions,
    Southwestern Ontario District, Central Region, 60.48 miles,
    as trains 640, 641, 642 and 645.
    60
    ft. oil electric car 15,820 between Saskatoon, North
    Battleford and Edmonton, Saskatoon Terminal and Langham
    Subdi visions, Saskatoon Division, Saskatchewan District,
    Western Region, and Blackfoot, Vegreville
    and Edmonton
    Terminal Subdivisions, Edmonton Division, Alberta District,
    350.3 miles, as trains 77 and 78.
    60 ft. oil electric car 15,821 between Truro and
    Sackville, Springhill Subdivision, Monteon Division,
    Atlantic Region, 86.67 miles, as train 17, between Sackville
    and Oxford Jet., on same subdivision, 39.92 miles, as train
    18, and between Oxford Jct. and Truro, same subdivision,
    46.75 miles,
    as train 296.
    MARCH -APRIL 2003 69
    A builders photo of 15834 when new in September, 1929.
    60 ft. oil electric car 15,822 between Saskatoon, North
    Batt1eford and Edmonton, Saskatoon Terminal and Langham
    Subdivisions, Saskatoon Division, Saskatc)1ewan District,
    Western Region, and Blackfoot,
    Vegrevilleand Edmonton
    Terminal Subdivisions, Edmonton Division, Alberta District,
    350.3 miles, as trains 77 and 78.
    60 ft. oil electric
    car 15,823 between Tignish and
    Charlottetown, on Tignish and Kensington Subdivisions,
    Island Division, Atlantic Region, 115.17 miles, as trains 205
    and 206.
    60 ft. oil electric car 15,824 between Montreal and
    Waterloo, Granby Subdivision, St. Lawrence Division, and
    Montreal Terminals Division, Montreal District, Central
    Region, 66.96 miles, as trains 303 and 304.
    60 ft. oil electric car 15,825 between Ottawa and
    Pembroke, Hurdman and Beachburg Subdivisions, Ottawa
    and Capreol Divisions, Northern Ontario District, Central
    Region, 86.7 miles, giving all local
    passenger service.
    Gasoline car 15,826 between
    Picton, Trenton and Trenton Jet., on
    Picton Subdivision, Ottawa
    Di vision, Northern Ontario District,
    Central Region, 30.6 miles,
    as trains
    301, 304, 305 308, 309 and 310.
    Gasoline car 15,827 between
    Brockville and Westport, Westport
    Subdivision, Ottawa Division,
    Northern Ontario District, Central
    Region, 40.3 miles, as trains 311,
    312,313 and 314.
    CANADIAN RAIL -493
    CRHA Archives, CanCar Collection, photo No. C-3150.
    Multiple unit car 15,903 between Montreal and St.
    Eustache, Mount Royal and LOrignal Subdivisions,
    Montreal Division, Quebec District, Central Region, 17
    miles, giving all local passenger service ..
    15,903 . also operates between Montreal and
    CartieTville, Mount Royal and LOrignal Subdivisions,
    Montreal Division, Quebec District, Central Region, 8.2
    miles, giving all local passenger service.
    Multiple unit
    car 15,904 between Montreal and St.
    Eustache, Mount Royal and LOrignal Subdivisions,
    Montreal Division, Quebec District, Central Region, 17
    miles, giving all local passenger service.
    15,904 also operates between Montreal and
    Cartierville, Mount Royal and LOrignal Subdivisions,
    Montreal Division, Quebec District, Central Region, 8.2
    miles, giving all local passenger service.
    Gasoline car 15,828 between
    Stellarton and
    SUlUlY Brae, Mulgrave
    and Sunny Brae Subdivisions, New
    Glasgow Division, Atlantic Region,
    16.17 miles,
    as trains 231, 232, 233
    and 234.
    One of Montreals first multiple-unit cars. 15904, built by CNR in 1925 from a Grand
    Trunk Pacific coach
    of 1909.
    RAIL CANADIEN -493 70 MARS-AVRIL 2003
    Donations From J. Norman Lowe
    by Peter Murphy and Josee Vallerand
    An Atlantic & St. Lawrence £100 stock certificate. The design of this certificate remained virtually
    unchanged for almost 100 years. This one bears an embossed British revenue stamp dated
    1938. Note that
    the lease
    to the Grand Trunk expires in the year 28521 CRHA Archives, donation from 1. Norman Lowe
    We are very pleased to inform our membersofa
    generous donation of books, timetables and documents by
    Mr. Norman Lowe. For those who dont remember, Norman
    Lowe was CNs histOlical officer and was our contact at CN
    during the years when numerous railway excursions were
    organ.ized and operated. Mr. Lowe also travelled in business
    car Canada (private car of Charles Melville Hays, presently
    in the
    CRHA collection) for four years promoting railway
    history across Canada.
    His donation consists
    of research files and documents
    on various subjects some of which relate to tbe early years of
    the Quebec Railway Light and Power, Quebec Montmorency
    and Charlevoix Railway, all
    CNR Quebec region timetables
    between 1912 and 1962, brochures and plans of buildings
    and rolling stock, tickets and all sorts of related documents.
    This donation has been evaluated at over $ 11,000.00. Of
    special interest is an employee timetable of the Champlain
    and S1. Lawrence RailJoad dated 1853 (see page 57).
    This donation will certinly enrich our archive
    collection which has been lacking in Quebec City area
    archives.
    We wish to sincerely thank Mr. Nonnan Lowe for his
    generous donation and we take this opportunity to remind
    our members that the CRHA archives always welcomes
    further donations. Special thanks to our archivist Josee
    Vallerand with help from Daniel Laurendeau for arranging
    this donation from
    Mr. Lowe.
    Nous aV9ns Ie plaisir dannoncer lagenereuse
    donation de documents. et de livres de monsieur Norman
    Lowe. Pour ceux qui ne se souviennent pas, Norman Lowe
    travaillait au CN et organisait les excursions de train pour
    les membres de Iassociation. Monsieur Lowe a aussi voyage
    quatre ans sur la
    voiture Canada (voiture privee de Charles
    Melville Hays)
    a promouvoir Ihistoire ferroviaire a travers
    Ie Canada.
    Sa donation consiste en dossiers de recherche sur
    divers sujets dont quelques uns sur Ie Quebec, Railway and
    Power Co., et Ie Quebec, Montmorency & Charlevoix
    Railway; toutes les timetables du CN pour la region de
    Quebec entre 1919 et 1962, des blOchures, des plans de
    biltiments et de materiels fOulant, des billets et beaucoup
    dautres documents. Sa donation est evaluee a plus de
    11,000$.
    Cette nouvelle donation vient enrichir notre centre
    d archives qui etait un peu pauvre pour ce qui concerne la
    region de
    Quebec.
    Nous esperons que dautres membres comme monsieur
    Lowe, suivront ce geste et nous appelerons un jour pour
    nous offri.r leurs archives.
    Encore une fois merci!
    MARCH -APRIL 2003
    FREIGHT . TARIFF,
    N~. GA,.!:
    11) lOIZiTRO:i J1If.
    INTERCOLONIAL RAILrAY,
    ANI> TO
    . GANADIA~ PA{)IPIC RAILW!YSTATJONS~: viaLENNOXYILLE,
    . . , ….. .
    . . . . .
    TA~GNG EFf<~ECT OCTOBER 1ST; 1891,
    , L
    The rat,o, 0 .•. th.18 tlLTifl,are IIUbJ.eot ~t.ho.o,AonAil .. i8n ~.oi.nt. .Y~_lgbt PI.8Z~i8QRt.lon. (~~~p. . j ,
    8ta.~cd) an~ ~ tbe. Oen~ro.1 Ru]e! Bud Oonditlone or Carriage ,,~optcd .by, t~lc GrAnd
    Tr~nk BaUw,,), aud,mrLy b. llanelll,lea wltli. or,wtth~ut.Dotice. .
    cortaao~-JI._,r.l! .-.:! …. 1o oolt.><:IKm AIl ,IMi!~Fr o.>f all lr-.I~i. ol • …, .. lIj «Irl-I lT I~, GrallJ 1j,lulk )!iI, •• ,..
    (.·.,hf~.lr I>li:ui,u~ ….. , : .. .>(lllo T .. ri~ .1:.1 tI;..;(4.nr,lMM, ,,,·jlhID,Il-.t; ._,.1 • ….u;. .. Iholt., .1 .~I6,.lWd.tQm.II; ,
    KlflJ.I(tJ •• L,,, l ……. ~ ~OIlIoYiSII 8.InI:o .or.J ~Iad. \ h. iT,ulj .. ~):u thill, lhe .):o. …… ,.. …. ned t.I,c c.:.mfn,….f …. l~ .~ … dl(l ffl,c,-,-(.r Ih (1,; 1
    (0 I … d~ lI_6 tim In ,~hEtiQn Ul,he.,r.-t.e. . l
    00 IntoIWtate T,IIi<.-. .. ,r~ ,IIiL nO!. ql(jl.-or WIt II hi~ ,..ttlol.,rtorrllllu ~r .. ~ra;.1a_ ... ~t 1!>IIt~!C r
    If! II .. UlII.:t,ti_tiM, (r .. ~h(.f 11tf.~1C 11.(1\) IlIdlll.1 .. :ilbln tho! ~tr ,I! uant(, l
    :()
    .,,,~;~:I. SI-…f:(>l OlII,k (.) prcll(hi Ul;I~tM ,,,~I. i
    J. B~!~:: ~rMlhl 1.-.,11, J
    ~1-b:oTl:I.., . I .
    j
    _~ __ J
    71
    ···llt~UOIPENSI
    , , LaConipagnie du (JbeDlifte feF de QUE.
    BE(J~ MONTMORENCY &, CHA.ULEVOIX
    paieFa,~OO.OO (dellxcents Itia!!itFes) de Fe­
    co~pensea celui :qt dec?uvliFR ceh~i 011 (~eIlX
    qUi a 011 out Itlace des .ueees de bOIS Sill IeS
    laUs ·du cllelUinau Sault Montmo)euey,Mardi
    Ie ~~ Odobre 1889, dans Ie but Imretel les
    tF~illS (Ie la Compagnie.
    GEO. S. CRESSMAN,
    GerKnt.
    CANADIAN RAI L -493
    Re~oeotlul1y ~resented by the Railroad Company
    SlffilNE O~ ST, 1~NE AT nEAlTIU~
    NE:AR QUE:BEC, CANADA
    ~
    Qlil¢lm(~
    00110111 Prilltiog 01,11. ,A. ci.lT~ &. Q
    fBiT
    ABOVE LEFT: A Grand Trunk freight
    tariff
    of 1891 Listing rates to points on
    the
    Intercolonial and the Canadian
    Pacific,
    ABOVE RIGHT:
    An 1897 guide book to
    the Quebec Montmorency and
    Charlevoix Railway. The QM&C was
    then a steam railway, but
    in 1899-1900
    it was
    electrified and became the
    Quebec Railway Light & Power
    interurnan electric line.
    LEFT: A
    poster announcing a $200
    reward for the capture of the person
    or persons who put pieces of wood on
    the tracks
    of the QM&C at
    Montmorency Falls on October 22,
    1889,
    This was the year the line
    opened.
    All items from CRHA Archives,
    donation from 1. Norman Lowe
    RAIL CANADIEN -493 72 MARS-AVRIL 2003
    Cape Breton Update (as at 23 March 2003)
    by Herb MacDonald
    Three views of the Bras dOr taken on August 22, 2000.
    The January-February issues article on early Cape
    Breton railways refelTed to the scheduling of an imminent
    end to rail service between St.Peters Jet and Sydney. A last­
    minute deal brokered by the Nova Scotia government
    between Nova Scotia Power and Rail America (the operators
    of the Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia RR since
    Canadian National abandoned its line east of Truro) has
    provided at least a temporary reprieve for the Sydney
    subdivision.
    Preliminary details indicate the alTangement provides
    for shipments
    of coal from Sydney to NSPs Point Tupper
    power plant at a rate of 4400 cars per year. This volume
    would make up almost 90
    % of the 5000 cars per year traffic
    level which the operator says is needed to make the line
    viable. Within their application for abandonment, the
    company indicated that the Cape Breton section of the line
    had been producing losses
    of $50,000 per· month.
    Existing traffic for other local shippers or
    Newfoundland is expected to continue to provide enough
    business to bring volumes over the critical 5000 cars per
    year level. VIA Rail has indicated intent to continue operation
    of their tourist train, Bras dOr, on the line during the summer
    months (see VIA Rails
    web site http://
    www.viarail.ca!tra ins!
    en_traLa tla_hasy. h tml).
    References have also
    appeared to other potent­
    ial
    business from other
    sources such a recently­
    opened Georgia-Pacific
    gypsum mine at Melford
    in
    southern Inverness
    County which has thus
    far been shipping its
    output to dockside by
    truck.
    Photos by Fred Angus
    The rescue package
    also provides for a million
    dollars in public funding
    to be used toward maintaining and upgrading the line. Civic
    leaders and the
    Cape Breton business community have of
    course breathed a collective sigh of relief over news of the
    deal. Less optimistic observers note the absence
    of any long­
    term guarantees since the agreements reached are apparently
    valid only to the end
    of 2004.
    Comments about the last-minute timing
    of
    the deal have also noted that the provincial
    government is poised to call an election.
    Questions have been asked about the extent to
    which the efforts made on behalf
    of the rail line
    may have been driven by short-run political
    interests. CRHA members who have been
    thinking about a ride on the Cape Breton tourist
    train, the Bras
    dOr, as a future activity are well
    advised
    to plan to take the trip sooner rather than
    later. Despite the interim reprieve, the future
    of
    any fOlTl1 of rail service to and from Sydney seems
    far from secure.
    MARCH -APRIL 2003 73 CANADIAN RAIL -493
    Revised Schedule for CPR 2816
    CPR Photo
    The schedule for CPR 2816s trip to the east, printed in our last issue, was incorrect. The revised schedule is shown below.
    It is correct as of the compiling of this issue, April 6 2003. The editor apologizes for any trouble caused by the publication of the
    incorrect schedule.
    CPR Empress 2003 Tour schedule
    Medicine Hat, AB Sat., May 24
    Swift Current,
    SK Sun., May 25
    Moose Jaw,
    SK Mon., May 26
    Broadview,
    SK Tues., May 27
    Brandon, MB Wed., May 28
    Winnipeg, MB Thurs., May 29
    Kenora, ON Fri., May 30
    Thunder Bay,
    ON Sat., May 31
    Schreiber, ON Mon., Jun 2
    Chapleau, ON Tues., Jun 3
    Sudbury, ON Wed., Jun 4
    Mactier, ON Thurs., Jun 5
    Hamilton, ON Mon., Jun 9
    London, ON Tues., Jun
    10
    Windsor, ON Wed., Jun 11
    Woodstock, ON Thurs., Jun 12
    Oshawa, ON PIi., Jun 13
    Milton, ON Sat., Jun 14
    Parry Sound, ON Sun., Jun 22
    Cartier, ON Mon., Jun 23
    Chapleau, ON Tues.,
    JW1 24
    White River, ON Wed., Jun 25
    Nipigon, ON Thurs., Jun 26
    Thunder Bay, ON Fri., Jun 27
    Ignace, ON Sat., Jun 28
    Kenora, ON Sun., Jun 29
    Winnipeg, MB Tues., July 1
    Portage, MB Tues., July 1
    Vi.rden, MB Wed., July 2
    Broadview,
    SK Thurs., July 3
    Regina,
    SK Fri., July 4
    Swift
    CUITent, SK Sat., July 5
    Medicine Hat, AB Sun., July 6
    Calgary, AB Tues
    ., July 8
    RAIL CANADIEN -493 74 MARS-AVRIL 2003
    Exporail Construction Report April, 2003
    Rapport de construction Exporail, Avril 2003
    M. Peter Murphy
    Two views of the new building, taken by Steve Cheasley in March 2003.
    Phase three of the Exporail construction project is
    drawing to a close; we are now in the final phases of
    preparation for the opening on May 31, 2003.
    There remains work to be done namely the completion
    of the second floor archive and office areas, as well as some
    remaining walls and finishing on the ground floor. These
    works will only be undertaken when funding is in place,
    hopefully this faU.
    In the01eantjme we .are in urgent need of volunteers
    to help
    us prepare for opening day. With limited financial
    resources we must clean the site, clean and paint indoors,
    prepare the displays and exhibits for presentation.
    Meanwhile we have hired Coyle Enterprises to
    augment our volunteers and lay tracks from the three newly
    installed switches on the Candiac
    spur to the doors of the
    pavilion. Because
    of the urgency and lack of funds, only
    three leads will be constructed at this time. These three leads
    will be shoo-flied so that each lead can service four bays.
    The full yard will be constructed on a less w-gent basis as
    time and money permit. Indoor trackage is complete with
    the exception
    of the Saint Henri carbam special work whose
    installation
    is now nearing completion.
    Now that the
    scaffolding and plastic sheeting are
    removed one
    can fully appreciate the architectural beauty
    of this pavilion.
    Our fundraising efforts continue, the Iraq war and the
    economic si tuation are not making this task any easier.
    Hopefully funds will be available to fully complete the
    pavilion this fall. Nous sommes presentement a finaliser la phase 3 de
    la
    construction dExporail. Toutefois, quelques petits
    travaux, tels que la finition de certains murs du rez-de­
    chaussee, restent a faire avant l ouverture prevue au 31 mai
    2003.
    Les espaces a bureaux et les archives, situes au
    deuxieme etage, devront etre aussi completes. Ces travaux
    ne pourront etre termines que lorsquun nouveau
    financement sera trouve. Nous esperons continuer les travaux
    cetautomne.
    Dicia Iouverture dExporail, nousavons un urgent
    besoin de volontaires. Nous devons, avec des reSSQurces
    financieres tres limitees, nettoyer
    Ie site exterieur, nettoyer
    linterieur du pavilion et peindre plusieurs murs et,
    finalement, preparer les comptoirs et mettre en place les
    expositions.
    Nous avons, entre-temps, retenu les services de la
    compagnie de Voies ferrees Coyle pour installer les voies
    qui relient les trois nouveaux aiguillages de
    I embranchement Candiac jusqu aux portes du pavilion.
    Lurgence des travaux, et nos ressources financieres, nous
    oblige an installer que trois voies. Ces dernieres seront
    glissees dune serie de portes a lautre afin de permettre
    Ientree de la quarantaine de vehicules selectionnes pour la
    grande Galerie. Nous completerons Iamenagement de la
    cours de triage plus tard cette annee, en fonction du
    financement recueilli. Outre Iinstallation de Iaiguillage du
    hangar Saint-Henri, les voies ferrees interieures sont
    completement terminees.
    Les passants peuvent aujourdhui admirer la beaute
    architecturale du pavillon Exporail maintenant que les
    echafaudages et Ie recouvrement de plastique ont ete enleves.
    Notre campagne de levee de fonds se
    pOUlsuit malgre
    tout,
    meme si la situation economique et la guerre en Irak
    ralentissent nos efforts. Nous esperons sincerement pouvoir
    amasser suffisamment de fonds pour completer
    Ie pavilion
    cet automne.
    MARCH -APRIL 2003
    A close-up of the entrance of the new building on March
    22, 2003.
    Photo by James Bouchard
    ABOVE, ABOVE RIGHT AND RIGHT: Three views
    of
    volunteers laying track in the new building. The
    tramways track is from the former
    St. Henri cmbarn.
    Photos by Jam
    es Bouchard
    75 CANADIAN RAIL -493
    Another view, also taken on March 22, 2003.
    Photo by James Bouchard
    RAIL CANADIEN -493 76 MARS-AVRIL 2003
    LEFT: Tracklaying at the rear of the
    new building on April 10, 2003.
    Photo by Fred Angus
    The latest additions to the CRHA collection are
    two Rail Diesel Cars. CPR
    90, formerly 9069,
    was donated by
    CPand s/:tipped on a flat car. It
    was built by Budd in June 1957.
    Former CPR 9250, a rare RDC-4, was donated
    by D.A. Walmsley.
    It was built by Budd in July
    1956.
    These three photos were taken at the Museum on
    April /0, 2003.
    Photos by Fred Angus
    MARCH -APRIL 2003 77 CANADIAN RAIL -493
    The Business Car
    RAILWAY HERITAGE SOCIETY FORMED
    Orangedale, N.S. -The newly-formed Nova Scotia
    Railway Heritage Society held its first annual general
    meeting at the historic railway station here March 22, and
    has. alreaoy been able to report success
    in its initial venture
    to proIllote
    the ·provinces railway venues to· tourists.
    The group -composed of tourism operators of railway­
    themed attractions like the Orangedale Railway Museum,
    the Halifax & Southwestern Railway Museum, commercial
    operations like the Train Station Inn at Tamagouche, and
    individuals interested in the provinces rich railway past –
    has already hosted a web site which may be found at
    www.novascotiarailwayheritage.com. to compliment the
    release of a brochure describing the location and importance
    of more than 30 stations (including the three still currently
    in use for passenger service by VIA Rail), museums and tourist
    attractions featuring railway equipment like engines and
    cabooses.
    The brochure, supported in part by the Nova Scotia
    Museums Strategic Development Initiative Fund, was
    released prior to the annual meeting by Nova Scotia Tourism
    & Culture Minister, Rodney MacDonald. It will be made
    available at the railway heritage sites and visitor information
    centers throughout Nova Scotia this summer, and eventually
    at out-of-province visitor information centers.
    The brochure
    will also be a valuable tool in promoting the history
    of Nova
    Scotias railways and the important part they played in the
    development of the province. For this reason they will be
    made available to schools for their history classes.
    Future projects include the acquisition of artifacts
    and assets to assist in preserving and interpreting Nova
    Scotias Railway lore, the production of a video, and the
    concept
    of a national or Atlantic regional railway conference
    which will be used as a means of stimulating interest in
    railway heritage and the sharing of information among
    tourism and museum operators. The format might include
    railway excursions, seminars, and tours of the various
    locations being preserved and promoted by the organization.
    The societyS founding directors are Jimmie LeFresne
    of Tatamagouche Railway Station (president), Martin Boston
    of the Orangedale Railway Museum (vice-president), Bill
    Linley, railway photographer and author of Halifax
    (secretary-treasurer) and directors Janice Woollam of the
    French Village railway station and Lauren Tutty of the
    Liverpool railway station. Two new directors, David Othen,
    and Duane
    Porter of the Halifax & Southwestern Railway
    Museum were added at the first annual meeting in Orangedale.
    The society will next meet immediately following the
    popular Truro model railway show on October 18.
    HAMILTON MAY SEE MORE GO TRAINS
    More trains are coming to Hamilton if the money
    flows.
    Theres speculation that the federal and provincial
    governments are on the verge of announcing increased
    funding for rail service improvements. These could bring
    all-day GO Trains for Hamilton and also a new VIA station
    and passenger service for the city. Reports, from unidentified
    government sources, say about $1.2 billion in new federal
    and provincial funding will be announced soon. Gary
    McNeil, manager director of GO Transit, says GO has asked
    for
    $40 to $70 million to build a third track into Hamilton.
    .
    Becausethe two existing .tracks are currently heavily booked
    for freight traffic, its been impossible to provide all-day
    service beyond Burlington to Hamilton. Freight occupies
    all the time slots, he says. Increased funding for rail service
    has been talked about for years but it appears the federal and
    provincial governments are finally agreeing on cost sharing.
    Both VIA and GO have
    made proposalsthat would improve
    service
    in the Greater Toronto area, including Hamilton, VIA
    trains currently only stop at Aldershot Station although
    trains travel through Hamilton on their way to Niagara Falls
    and New York City. Catherine Kaloutsky, spokesperson for
    VIA, says the railway is encouraged by reports
    of pending
    funding and awaiting details. Although VIA has outlined
    improvements to the government, it was not prepared to
    outline how service
    to the Hamilton area could be affected,
    she said, A third track would allow
    VIA to offer rush-hour
    passenger service for Hamilton and there has been talk of
    building a new VIA station in the Stuart Street area. The
    Amtrak train goes through Hamilton and its kind of dumb
    that
    it doesnt stop, GOs McNeil says. In the short-term,
    GO Transit
    is expJoring adding one additional early morning
    train from Hamilton to Toronto.
    There are currently three
    Toronto-bound morning GO trains and four Hamilton-bound
    trains in the evening,
    The third track to increases passenger
    capacity is needed in the areas known as the Bayview
    junction and Burlington junctions where the Canadian
    National and Canadian Pacific lines come together. The
    anticipated funding over five years could also bring about
    the extension
    of GO service beyond Milton to Cambridge
    and service between Toronto and Brampton which would
    serve Lester B. Pearson Airport, GO rail service may also be
    restored between Toronto and BaITie. McNeil at GO Transit
    says funding announcements
    have been made before but he
    hopes the actual money will soon flow.
    Toronto Star, Mar. 27, 2003,
    RAIL CANADIEN -493
    ALL ABOARD FOR BARRIE?
    Just mention the possibility of regular GO train service
    to Toronto from Barrie
    to those who must make that trip, and
    their eyes widen
    as if to say When? followed by Dont
    tease. Id love it, said Diana Borowski, a collection rep
    who awakens at 4:30 a.m. in Barrie
    to make the hour-and-a­
    half commute
    to work. She must drive to Bradford to hop on
    the GO train where she pays $220 a month for the daily
    commute.Rail service will
    be a reality with word that Ottawa
    and Queens Park are giving GO nearly
    $1 billion to expand
    the services rail line
    to points such as Barrie, Peterborough,
    the Niagara Region and Cambridge. I think the people in
    Barrie can be optimistic that in the not-so-distant future,
    they
    re going to get some of the service theyve been pining
    for, GO chairman Gordon Chong sa
    id. It will take two, maybe
    three years to get the Barrie-Toronto train on track, he added.
    Barrie
    is Canadas sixth fastest-growing municipality, second
    in Ontario only
    to Vaughan. At 103,701 at last count in the
    2001 census, Barrie is expected
    to add about 7,000 residents
    annually.
    An awful lot of those residents -about 30,000,
    according to Barrie Mayor Jim Perri -work outside the city,
    most heading south on a clogged and often dangerous
    Highway 400. This is intracity transit, Perri said. We need
    to reduce the
    number of vehicles on the highways. Hard
    lobbying and forethought by Barrie were key
    to making GO
    rail service a go. When Queens Park cutbacks in the mid-
    1990s led to
    an across-the-board reduction of GO service,
    Barrie lost its daily rail commute
    to Toronto. Only a handful
    of GO buses serviced the area. CN, which owned a 35-
    kilometre rail link from Barrie to Bradford, was going to
    bteak up the tracks, We didnt want
    to. lose the link south to
    Toronto fdt: future expansion of rail services, Perri said. If
    we didnt buy it, ·there would never be a rail link to Barrie.
    So the city anted up $4 million for the line and waited. And
    waited. When the province looked at ways to alleviate
    highway congestion in the area, it considered widening and
    expanding highways: the 427 northbound and an
    east-west
    400-series highway near Bradford. But Perri urged Queens
    Park to look at alternatives, including rail. We felt that they
    should do a bit
    of visioning for the future and get into rail
    transportation, that they cant continue to just build
    highways. They need to get people out of their car and on to
    transit. Barrie wasnt alone in lobbying Ottawa and Queens
    Park for increased service. Most communities within two
    hours
    of Toronto wanted improved rail service, either GO,
    VIA, or both, recognizing how clogged highways can be.
    But theyre getting bus service until a business case can be
    made
    for rail. We see the future of transportation is by rail,
    said St. Catharines Mayor Tom Rigby, whose community
    would initially get a bus service. It is a start. Its probably
    the more efficient way
    of starting, with buses connecting to
    Burlington and the GO system and build from there and see
    how it goes. GOs service
    to Peterborough would start as a
    bus ride
    to Oshawa, joining with the Lakeshore line. But rail
    service
    to Toronto, abandoned by VIA in the 1990s, is what
    Peterborough Mayor Sylvia Sutherland is after. From an
    economic point
    of view, development and attracting people
    to the community, we need it, Sutherland said.
    Toronto
    Star
    78 MARS-AVRIL 2003
    NEW COIN DEPICTS CNR 9400
    As a part
    of its continuing series of $20 sterling silver
    coins depicting historic landmarks
    in the history of Canadian
    transportation, the Royal Canadian Mint has produced a
    coin depicting Canadian National Railways FA-I diesel
    locomotive 9400. This is the fourth in the series of historic
    locomotives (the other three were the Toronto, the Scotia
    and a
    CPR D-IO), and the first to show a diesel. There is
    another difference in this
    years coin; the locomotive itself
    is gold plated
    by a special mint process known as selective
    .
    gold plating, which makes the entire effect extremely
    attractive. While the previous three years coins bore a
    hologram showing the side view
    of the locomotive, this one
    shows 9400 as an intricate sterling silver cameo. Despite the
    gold
    plating, the price of these coins, including a sturdy
    case and plastic protective encapulation, remains the same,
    $59.95 plus tax.
    They are obtainable from the mint or at
    major post offices.
    9400 itself has been preserved and is now at the
    Canadian Railway Museum. Recently it has been restored
    to its green and gold CNR paint scheme, as can be seen by
    the above pboto taken
    by Fred Angus on April 10, 2003.
    MARCH -APRIL 2003
    A NEW BOOK ON THE OTTAWA CAR COMPANY
    The Ottawa
    Car Company/
    Most electric railway enthusiasts in Canada know
    that the
    Ottawa Car Company built cars for many street
    railways and interurban lines throughout Canada and even
    in other countries. Few were the Canadian electric railway
    systems that did not have at least one Ottawa-built car
    in its
    roster, and some companies used Ottawa cars almost
    exclusively. Most notable of these was, as would be expected,
    Ottawa itself, but in
    other cities, more than two thirds of
    their cars, in the early twentieth century, were products of
    the factory at Kent and Slater Streets in Canadas capital.
    In this 36-page soft-cover book, David C. Knowles
    gives a brief history
    of the Ottawa Car Company, followed
    by a bibliography
    of books which tell of systems that used
    Ottawa-built cars. The book is dedicated to the men and
    women of Ottawa Car who built the nearly noo streetcars
    that
    carried Canadians in· the first half of the twentieth
    . century.
    The next section takes up most
    of the book and is the
    most interesting. There are 29 very clear photos, almost full
    page, depicting cars built by Ottawa. These are in
    chronological order, ranging from Winnipeg Electric Railway
    No.6, built in 1892, to Ottawa Electric Railway No. 1003,
    constructed in 1947.
    Along the way we see cars for Saint
    John, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto, St. Johns
    Newfoundland, Saskatoon, Windsor, as well as interurbans
    and
    even gasoline-powered cars for the CPR. The covers
    bear full-colour photos, that
    on the back being Ottawa 802
    after its retirement
    in 1959.
    Published by the By town Railway Society, the book
    is also available from the CRHA at 110 rue St. PielTe, St.
    Constant, Que. J5A
    2G9 for $17.60 postpaid. Allow 4 weeks
    for delivery.
    79 CANADIAN RAIL -493
    NEW BOOK ABOUT THE RAILWAY TO CHURCffiLL
    Mr. Thomas Taber of Muncy Pa., has sent a very
    interesting book entitled North of The Pas. In an
    accompanying letter,
    Mr Taber says:
    I have just completed the enclosed which should be
    interest to
    some of your members. Basically it is a semi
    history of the railroads to Churchill, Flin Flon and Lynn
    Lake plus my memoirs of spending the winter on the
    Churchill line 50 years ago with a follow-up in 1994.
    Emphasis is gi ven to the tremendous changes that had taken
    place in
    42 years. A major problem is marketing it in Canada.
    Sending international money orders can be done and checks
    on banks that have a U.S. affiliation. Visa, etc I do not have.
    I hope you find it interesting.
    You may feel that the cover
    photo is the best thing about it. I think it is tremendous.
    Pure luck by the photographer. He never took any other
    train pictures up there.
    This is indeed a very interesting 82-page book,
    containing 114 photos (many of which do indeed show
    locomotives and other pieces of railway rolling stock), 8
    maps, plus several tables. Reading it, one gets the feel
    of
    what it was like on the Churchill line in the first half of the
    twentieth century, and how things have changed. Anyone
    interested in railroading in the north should have this book.
    The price is $10 U.S. which includes $1.34 postage.
    Available from:
    Thomas
    T. Taber III
    504 S. Main St.
    Muncy, Pa, 17756
    U.S.A.
    E.mail:
    thomtaber@chilitech.net
    Fax & phone: (570) 546-8346
    BACK COVER TOP: The early morning mist is rising from the river at Swastika Ontario as Ontario Northlands vintage
    wooden dining
    car Pineland brings up the rear of the overnight train from Toronto to Cochrane on May 15, 1967. This
    veteran passenger
    car was built in 1911 and may have been the last wooden diner in service on a main line railway in North
    America.
    It was retired only a few months latel:
    BACK COVER BOTTOM: Victoria B.C. was the location as CPR Baldwins 8000 and 8003 stand outside the engine house on
    August 27, 1964. Both locomotives were built in 1948, and 8003 was scrapped in 1975. However 8000 was preserved by the
    CPR for historical reasons.
    Both
    photos by Fred Angus
    This issue of Canadian Rail was delivered to the printer on April 22, 2003.

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